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DRINK, TEMPERANCE 

AND 

LEGISLATION 



DRINK, TEMPERANCE 

AND 

LEGISLATION 



BY 



ARTHUR SHADWELL, M.A., M.D.Oxon. 



THIRD IMPRESSION 



LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK 

LONDON, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS 

1915 

All rights reserved 






Copyright, 1915, by 
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 



Gilt 

FubJ 

jut t* tan 



3 

-1 



DEDICATION 

This book is Dedicated, wifh sincere respect, to the 
oldest and best friends of true temperance, tJte Clergy 
who by precept and example uphold the moral law, 
whereby alone we may become masters of ourselves 
and be temperate in all things. 



PREFACE 



This book deals mainly with the drink question in 
the United Kingdom, but numerous illustrative 
facts are drawn from other countries. It is written 
from the standpoint of an observer and student who 
has no interest in the liquor traffic, no connection 
with any temperance organisation, no foregone con- 
clusion to prove and no favourite panacea to advo- 
cate. It rather endeavours to remove the subject from 
these associations, which are apt to distort the vision, 
and to see things more as they are than as interest 
or fancy would have them be. 

The chapters to which I would draw particular 
attention are those on l Drink in the Past/ ' The 
Decline of Drunkenness,' ' The Forces of Temper- 
ance/ ' The Forces of Intemperance/ and ' The 
Principles of Liquor Legislation.' They embody a 
connected argument bearing on the last point. A 
portion of the matter contained in the first three 
chapters mentioned has been published before in 
the form of separate essays. They attracted some 



viii DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

attention at the time, and communications reached 
me from various quarters. I promised republica- 
tion in a complete form, and the present time, when 
liquor legislation is in the wind, seems opportune. 
The rest of the book consists of subsidiary essays. 

I am encouraged to hope that it may meet with 
acceptance from persons interested in the subject 
by the more than kind reception given to a paper, 
containing an outline of the main argument, which 
I read at the St. Albans Diocesan Conference in 1900. 
To my great astonishment it met with unanimous 
approval. On the other hand I am well aware that 
some will dissent very heartily from much that they 
will find in this book. The subject is, unfortunately, 
controversial in the highest degree, and it is impos- 
sible to avoid contentious matter. I beg those who 
differ from me to believe that I respect their mo- 
tives and am animated by no hostility. I beg them 
also to note all that is said on particular points 
in different passages, for observations made in one 
connection are frequently qualified by further re- 
marks made in another. 

All statistics and official quotations are taken direct 
from the official sources, and second-hand informa- 
tion is avoided as far as possible. 

The reader will find a good deal of repetition, for 
which I ought, perhaps, to apologise ; but it is a choice 
of evils. "When the same facts are approached from 



PREFACE IX 

different directions the only alternative to repetition 
is to omit something and run the risk of being mis- 
understood — a real risk, as I have often found to 
my cost. There is, however, one deliberate repeti- 
tion, for which I offer no apology. It is insistence 
on the principle of self -responsibility, if I may coin 
a word. A social philosophy is current to-day which 
proclaims collective, but denies individual, responsi- 
bility; which would make every one responsible for 
every one else, but not for himself; or, taking an- 
other form, would relieve some individuals of all 
responsibility for their own conduct and would call 
others to account not only for themselves but for 
the rest. These confused ideas, which profane the 
names of Science and of Social Eeform, are the 
product of a civilisation suffering from senile 
dementia. Whether we are our brothers' keepers or 
not, we must first be our own, if there is to be any 
responsibility at all. To deny it is to deny free 
will, which may be well enough as a philosophical 
speculation, but is fatal in real life. If, for instance, 
the consumer of liquor is the helpless victim of heredi- 
tary tendencies, irresistible cravings, environment, 
temptation, laws, and systems, the seller is no less 
at the mercy of the same forces and equally irre- 
sponsible. He suffers from an irresistible craving (to 
make money) and cannot withstand the temptation 
(of seeing so many thirsty people about him). And 



X DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

so with all of us; you cannot pick and choose in 
responsibility. By the same reasoning we are all the 
products of ancestry and environment, all the pup- 
pets of circumstance. And the State, being but a 
collection of such puppets, is a fortiori helpless and 
irresponsible. From this impasse there is no logical 
escape if we once tamper with the principle of indi- 
vidual responsibility. The whole social fabric is built 
upon it; dislodge the foundation and it all topples 
down. Temperance reformers certainly do not desire 
that; but the fallacy that leads to it takes many 
disguises and creeps in unrecognised ; it is subtle and 
pervasive. How it pervades and colours the liquor 
question will, I hope, be made clear in the following 
pages ; for I believe we are still sane enough to throw 
off the delusions of dementia, when we see them, and 
to resume a healthy habit of thought. 

April, 1902. 






CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTORY AND PERSONAL 

Author's study of the liquor traffic — Knowledge of its 
actualities important — Want of such knowledge 
among reformers — Lord Salisbury's wisdom — Oppo- 
sition to schemes of reform — People who use the 
public-house not consulted — The ' solution ' fallacy 
— Evils of drink — Alternative evils — Diminution of 
drunkenness accompanied by increase of betting — 
Moral law the only 'solution' — Total abstinence 
necessary for inebriates — Good for others but not 
for all 



PAGE 



1-13 



CHAPTER II 

DRINK IN THE PAST 



Excessive indulgence prevalent from the earliest times 
— The Ancient Britons — The Saxons — Drinking 
healths — Temperance movement a.d. 570— King Ed- 
gar, Dunstan, and s drinking to pegs ' — The Danes 
and Normans — English beer in 1130 — Early closing 
in the thirteenth century — Complaints of excessive 
number of taverns in 1330 — Power given to justices 
to suppress them in 1495 — Licensing introduced in 
1551 — Camden on the increase of drunkenness — 
Bacon and other writers in the Elizabethan age — 
The liquor traffic at the beginning of the seven- 
teenth century — Repressive Acts in 1603, 1607, and 



xii DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



1610 — Burton on drinking in 1621 — The clergy im- 
plicated — Drunkenness among the Puritan troops 
— Female drunkenness in 1657 — Adulteration — 
Consumption of beer in 1688 — Home manufacture 
of spirits — Defoe on the English working man — Gin 
Act of 1736 — Increased consumption of spirits — 
Shocking state of things — Number of bars and con- 
sumption per head in London — Gin Act repealed — 
Fielding on gin — Moderate legislation in 1751 more 
successful — Beer v. spirits — Drunkenness among 
the upper classes — The public-house in the eight- 
eenth century — Medical attack on intemperance — 
London in 1824 — Beer-house Act of 1830 — Select 
Committee of 1834 — Remarkable evidence — Female 
and juvenile drunkenness — Sunday mornings — 
Drinking a condition of employment for working 
men — Conclusions of Committee .... 14-42 



CHAPTER III 

THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 

New era since 1830-40 — Important changes — Organic 
improvement — Select Committee of 1854 — Evidence 
of improved conduct of liquor traffic — Abuses still 
existing — Increase of intemperance 1867-76 — House 
of Lords Committee of 1876 — Evidence of improve- 
ment — Reduction of public-houses — Drunkenness 
more confined to lowest grades of society — Royal 
Commission of 1896-99 — Evidence of improvement 
from all parts of England — Scotland — Ireland — 
Statistics of drunkenness — London 1834-92 — Liver- 
pool 1866-95— Glasgow 1857 96— England and 
Wales 1857-98— Ireland 1885-95— Reduction of li- 
censes 1831-91— Consumption of alcohol 1831-99 . 43-74 



CHAPTER IV 

FEMALE DRUNKENNESS 

Alleged increase — Distinction between upper and lower 
classes — Increase among former— Its causes — 
Feminine emancipation — Narcotic drugs — Lower 



CONTENTS xiii 



PAGH 

classes — Alleged diminution — Sir John Bridge — 
Alleged increase — Dr. Norman Kerr — Death-rates 
from intemperance — Critically examined — Police 
statistics 1874-98 — Remarkable diminution — Less 
than among men — The reasons — Women more often 
habitual inebriates — Statistics in Liverpool and 
Dundee — Conclusion 75-89 



CHAPTER V 

THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE 

Temperance Societies and Liquor Laws — Origin of 
temperance organisation 1826 — Belfast and Glas- 
gow 1829 — Yorkshire and Lancashire 1830 — London 
— British and Foreign Temperance Society 1831 — 
Queen Victoria — Teetotalism 1832 — Dissensions — 
Father Mathew 1838-42 — His wonderful success — 
Comes to England 1843 — Decline of the temperance 
movement — Also in United States — The Maine law 
— The United Kingdom Alliance — Revival of move- 
ment 1860 — Political element — Benefit Societies — 
Good Templars — Church of England Temperance 
Society — 'Danesbury House' — Membership of So- 
cieties — Juvenile abstainers — Failure of teetotal- 
ism — Liquor laws — Activity of Legislature — Act 
of 1834 — Metropolitan Police Act 1839 — Beer-house 
Amendment Act 1840 — Gaming Act 1845 — Acts 
1854-55, Sunday closing in Scotland — Act of 1860, 
Grocers' Licenses — Acts 1861-64 — Wine and Beer- 
house Act 1869 — Licensing Acts 1872 and 1874 — 
Their beneficial effects — Sunday closing in Ireland 
1878— In Wales 1881— Acts 1882-1901— Other in- 
fluences — Public opinion — Indirect effects of So- 
cieties — Example of upper classes — The Court — 
The future 90-114 

CHAPTER VI 

THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 

Physiological effect of alcohol — People drink because 
they like it — Its exhilarating effect — Most desired 
in circumstances of depression — Hence influence of 
climate — Drunken countries in North of Europe — 



xiv DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



PAGE 



Sobriety of the South — Consumption per head no 
measure of sobriety — Diffused and concentrated 
drinking — Distribution of drunkenness in the 
United Kingdom — Greater in North and West than 
in South and East — Scotland — Spirit drinking and 
climate — Sweden — Influence of race — Hungarians 
— Celts — Abstemious nations decadent — Heredity 
and the Darwinian theory — Influence of occupation 
— Seaports, mining, manufacturing, and agricul- 
tural districts compared— The most and the least 
alcoholic classes — Other conditions of life — The 
real attraction of the public-house — Conviviality — . 
Facilities — Need of restriction — Number of public- 
houses and drunkenness — Deficiency of regular 
facilities — Clubs — Hours of closing — Arrangement 
of premises — Food and non-intoxicants — State of 
wages — Price of liquor — Children and the public- 
house^ — Public opinion — The temptation theory and 
irresponsibility 115-157 



CHAPTER VII 

THE PRINCIPLES OF LIQUOR LEGISLATION 

The right to legislate — Proposed drastic measures — 
Need of guiding principles — Material for forming 
them — Ignored by Peel Commission — Functions of 
the law — Order and justice — Limits of the law in 
dealing with moral evils — Criminal law — Success- 
ful legislation — Police Act 1839 — Other closing 
Acts — Sunday closing — Acts of 1869, 1872, and 
1874 — Evidence of their success — Unsuccessful 
legislation — Gin Act 1736 — Beer-house Act 1830 — 
Act of 1860 — The Gothenburg system — Other Scan- 
dinavian legislation — Good effects of restriction — 
Compulsory virtue in the United States — Its effects 
— Local option — Limited application — Distinction 
between spheres of law and moral agencies — Tend- 
ency to confound them 158-176 



CONTENTS xr 

CHAPTER VIII 

THEIR APPLICATION 

PAGE 

The aim of the law — The disorderly person — Requires 
more severe treatment — Suggestions — The dis- 
orderly place — Grocers' licenses — Clubs — Public- 
houses — Local option — ' Trust the people ' — Would 
leave the disorderly traffic untouched — Disinter- 
ested management — Its limits — Existing legal ma- 
chinery — Its success and failure — Its defects — The 
police — Weak points — Watch Committees — Effi- 
cient supervision of liquor traffic — Liverpool model 
system — Its success — Railway refreshment bars — 
The magistrates — Their leniency — Suggestions— 
The licensing bench — Its functions judicial not pa- 
ternal — Opposition excited by temperance zeal — A 
popularly elected element — Reasons against — Ire- 
land — Licensing courts should be made more ju- 
dicial — e Superfluous ' public-houses — Tied houses 
— Attack the wrong-doer — Disorderly hours — 
Earlier closing — Sunday closing in England — Con- 
clusion , 177-199 



CHAPTER IX 

THE ENGLISH PUBLIC-HOUSE 

The customers — The publican — His difficulties — Atti- 
tude to customers — Visit of observation to the 
East-end of London — The exterior — Its influence 
overrated — The interior — Its arrangement — Pri- 
vacy and women — The liquor — Adulteration — In 
eighteenth century — In the present day — Current 
fallacies — Proportion of intoxicated persons to 
drinkers — A dramatic incident — Drunkards — The 
deliberate drunkard — A working man on the pub- 
lic-house — The publican and drunkenness — e Push- 
ing the sale ' — Sale of non-intoxicants — Difficulty 
of preventing drunkenness — Women and children 
in the public-house — Responsibility of parents — 
Betting in public-houses — Conclusion . . . 200-223 



DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



CHAPTER X 

THE MODEL PUBLIC-HOUSE 



PAGE 



Lord Greys trust scheme— The first model public- 
house— The Rev. Osbert Mordaunt— History of the 
-Boars Head at Hampton Lucy— Mr. Mordaunt's 
experience— Difficulty in obtaining good beer- 
Tricks of the trade— Financial results— Good ef- 
fects in the village— The house described— The 
village ale-house— How it differs from the urban 
house— Reasons why less well conducted— The 
liquor— Bad stuff sent from the brewery— Advan- 
tages of the model system— Mr. Mordaunt's advice 
— -frobable effects of the trust system . . 224-238 



CHAPTER XI 

GOTHENBUKG AND THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 

Attractions of the system— Two ways of studying it— 
Gothenburg— The town described— The liquor 
traffic— The Gothenburg system— The Bolag— The 
model spirit-house— Scene inside— The liquor- 
Swedish capacity for drinking— Further details of 
management— The 'off' traffic— Beer-houses and 
beer— Effects of the system— On consumption— 
On drunkenness— The drunkenness of Gothenburg 
—Compared with England and Scotland— Increase 
due to beer— Female drunkenness— General effect 
on the working classes— Benefit of exchanging 
spirits for beer—' Clubbing '— Methylated spirits- 
Probable effect of system in England— Gothenburg 
compared with Cardiff— The police— Greater license 
permitted in Sweden— Detailed reforms considered 
—Elimination of personal profit— Early closing 
the most important reform— Difficulties of apply- 
ing it in England— Other towns in Sweden and 
Norway 



239-270 



CONTENTS xvii 



CHAPTER XII 

HABITUAL INEBRIATES 



PAGE 



Retreats and reformatories — Amount of accommoda- 
tion — Inebriates classified — The experience of re- 
treats — Small number of patients — Legal condi- 
tions—Majority of patients enter for short terms 
— Their dislike of restraint — Procuring liquor — 
Demoralising atmosphere — A patient quoted — 
Results — Reformatories — Compulsory restraint — 
Moral aspect of inebriety overlooked — c Irresistible 
craving ' — Dr. Johnson — De Quincey — Abstinence 
not a moral cure — Warning against discourage- 
ment — Difficulty of dealing compulsorily with non- 
criminal cases — Compared with lunatics — Begin- 
ners would not be affected — Nor the bulk of work- 
ing-class drunkards — Women — Conclusion . . 271-294 

Bibliography 295-296 



I 

Index ... . 297-302 



DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTORY AND PERSONAL 

An explanation of my interest in the drink question 
seems due to the reader, and desirable in order to 
make clear the point of view maintained in what 
follows; but it is not essential, and this chapter may- 
be skipped. It contains my credentials, so to speak, 
and cannot avoid being uncomfortably egotistic. 

Some years ago I was much engaged in the 
investigation of strikes and other labour questions. 
In order to get at the minds of the rank and file of 
the men — which is indispensable to a real under- 
standing of such matters, though generally neglected 
— I sought them where they most congregate and 
most readily enter into conversation, namely, in the 
public-house. I was thus led to spend a great deal 
of time in public-houses frequented by working men, 
conversing with them and joining in their pro- 
ceedings on a friendly footing, which included the 
consumption of vast quantities of c four ale.' I soon 



2 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

became interested in what went on apart from the 
immediate question in hand, and fell into the habit 
of observing the manners and customs of the place 
and of the people frequenting it. Many things 
struck my attention which were quite at variance 
with statements I had often seen, and still see, made 
in public by persons interested in the liquor question 
but possessing only a second-hand knowledge of its 
actualities. I pursued the subject further and made 
a regular study of it, not only in all parts of this 
country but abroad; and I have since kept it up. 
It has, in fact, been my practice for several years 
past to observe the habits of the people and the 
conduct of the liquor traffic on the spot, wherever 
I go, at home or abroad. Every part of London 
and every class of house is familiar to me, from the 
fashionable restaurant to the sailors' dancing saloons 
(now abolished) in what used to be Ratcliff Highway, 
the foreign clubs about Soho and the so-called 
1 opium dens ' frequented by Chinese firemen in 
Limehouse Causeway. I have made similar observa- 
tions in most of the large centres of population 
in these islands, in mining villages and purely 
agricultural districts; I have explored the lowest 
drinkshops in Paris by day and by night, alone and 
with the police, and have carried on my researches 
in nearly every country in Europe and in Canada. 
In short I may fairly say that my acquaintance 
with the pothouse and its ways is ' extensive and 
peculiar.' 

These observations have been supplemented, as 



INTRODUCTORY AND PERSONAL 3 

will be seen from subsequent chapters, by other 
studies. I have laboured over statistical returns, 
reports of official inquiries, historical and other 
literature; and I happen — by chance, not design — to 
have had experience of dipsomania, far more close 
and intimate, though less extensive, than that of 
the keeper of an inebriate home. I also heard all 
the evidence given before the Peel Commission — 
it fills nine closely printed Blue-books of the largest 
size — and wrote an abstract of it. Few phases of 
the subject, therefore, are unfamiliar to me, but I 
attach the greatest importance to a knowledge of 
the actual living thing. It seems to me the indis- 
pensable foundation for a clear comprehension of 
the problem as a whole, for without such knowledge 
it is difficult to interpret and appraise other evidence, 
which always varies widely and is often apparently 
contradictory. For instance, there is the all-impor- 
tant question of the execution of the law. As we 
all know, laws on the statute-book are one thing, 
laws in operation another; and whatever measures 
may be passed for the control or suppression of the 
liquor traffic, their efficacy depends on the action of 
the police. To understand that, we ought to know 
what goes on and the conditions under which the 
police have to act. Then there is the question of 
improvement or the contrary in the conduct of the 
liquor traffic and the effect of legislation or other 
influences upon it. One can hardly judge whether 
things are getting better or worse without knowing 
them as they are. 



4 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

Again, there is the fundamental question of the 
mutual relations between the people and the liquor 
trade, their attitude towards it and its attitude to- 
wards them; their habits and behaviour with regard 
to drink, how far they are l driven ' or ' drawn ' to it 
or seek it proprio motu. These things can only be 
learnt by observation inside the public-house. Theo- 
retical considerations may be very fallacious, and 
second-hand information often needs checking. In 
addition to such general questions we are confronted 
with a string of minor details — child messengers, the 
arrangement of premises, compartments, side-doors, 
the sale of non-intoxicants, the serving of drunken 
persons, the preservation of order, tied v. free houses, 
disinterested management, and so forth. A real 
insight into these and the like questions cannot well 
be acquired without studying them from the inside. 
At least such study cannot fail to be highly instruc- 
tive, and the wider the field of observation the greater 
the instruction derived from it. 

I cannot help thinking it a great pity that those 
who take the keenest interest in the subject and are 
most eager to deal with it by legislation should 
possess so very little of this inside knowledge. What 
they do know — it is that, of course, which makes 
them eager — is the evil of intemperance, the effects 
of which are visible in the streets, the home, and 
the police-court; but to be familiar with effects 
is not a sufficient equipment for grappling with 
causes. It provides the motive, not the knowledge. 
Contemplation of the devastation caused by a flood 



INTRODUCTORY AND PERSONAL 5 

and an earnest desire to remedy it do not qualify- 
any one to undertake the task. The emotional spec- 
tator, without knowledge, thinks it quite simple. 
i The river must be stopped,' he says decisively, and 
cannot understand that any one should oppose such 
an obvious solution except from sheer love of floods. 
Singularly enough the engineer does not see it in the 
same light. 

Lord Salisbury was severely taken to task for say- 
ing not long ago in the House of Lords that the 
matter of liquor reform required great consideration 
because it was a case of the cellared classes legislat- 
ing for the uncellared. Some critics were astonished 
and others indignant at the ' flippancy ' of putting 
off this important question with a truism which 
applies to our whole body of liquor laws, as if it were 
a new thing. Lord Salisbury's critics failed to see 
the point of his remark because — as not infrequently 
happens — they had not an equal grasp of the subject. 
He really went to the heart of it. So many blunders 
have been committed in the past just because one 
class has always legislated for another without suffi- 
ciently knowing the conditions; and it is for the 
same reason that there is so much division and con- 
troversy now and so much danger of blundering 
again. 

The opposition offered to many schemes of liquor 
legislation is always ascribed by their promoters to 
the machinations of the trade. No doubt there is 
opposition on the part of liquor sellers, who, like 
other people, resent interference with their business, 



6 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

and they are a powerful body. But the suggestion 
is that by some obscure influence they induce others, 
who have not the same direct interest, to join in fight- 
ing their battles. A recent pronouncement of this 
kind may be quoted as typical. At a meeting held in 
Lambeth Palace to advocate Sunday closing, the noble- 
man who moved the resolution said that 

1 in fighting this question they had to contend with 
the opposition of the trade, which was strong in 
wealth, in active co-operation and organisation, and, 
above all, in a subtle influence which permeated every 
street and every city and almost every lane of every 
village and hamlet. ' 



i 



If his lordship had that inside knowledge of the 
liquor traffic to which I refer, he would understand 
the c subtle influence ? and the opposition better. I 
venture to think — indeed I know — that a great part 
of the opposition is not due to any machinations of 
the trade, but to ignorance of the forces with which 
they have to deal commonly displayed by temperance 
reformers. They want to stop the river without 
studying its origin and course, and the many who 
know it well perceive that the naive plan is imprac- 
ticable. How many temperance reformers have ever 
set foot inside a public-house? I often think, when 
I read the account of enthusiastic meetings and the 
speeches delivered at them, what an instructive 
change it would be if the audience and the speakers 
would adjourn to the public-house and acquire a little 
practical knowledge on the subject. For while they 
1 Standard, February 14, 1902. 



INTRODUCTORY AND PERSONAL 7 

are enjoying themselves at the meeting with intoxi- 
cating words about the wishes of the people, the 
people are enjoying themselves at the public-house 
with intoxicating liquor, and are about as much dis- 
posed to abandon that privilege as the reformers 
would be to support a measure for the suppression 
of meetings. 

It was not even thought necessary to consult 
them when an exhaustive inquiry was recently held 
into the operation of the liquor laws. Everybody 
else was consulted. Hundreds of witnesses repre- 
senting every other interest, including the trade, 
were called and encouraged to state their views and 
fancies, often at intolerable length; but the people, 
who are the vital factor in determining the ultimate 
result, whose desires, needs, and habits form the real 
test by which every measure stands or falls in 
practice, and by which, therefore, it should be judged 
— they were ignored. Two or three presented them- 
selves, and received the scant attention which they 
deserved for thrusting forward their opinions on a 
matter which seems to be the business of everybody 
except those who are most concerned. There is 
something ludicrous in the lists of witnesses and their 
occupations, apart from the magistrates, police, and 
others who had a real connection with the question, 
and gave valuable evidence. It is as though one 
were to hold an inquiry into coal-mines, and were 
to call up the butcher, the baker, the candlestick- 
maker, and solemnly elicit their views, while leaving 
out the miner. But it was typical of the manner 



8 



DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



in which the subject is usually approached. Truly- 
local option is more reasonable: nominally, at least, 
it sets out to give those who use the public-house a 
say in the matter. 

One disadvantage of living in an atmosphere of 
words untempered by reality is that we become the 
slaves of phrases. All questions of social legislation 
abound in them, and there is one master-phrase 
which applies to them all — the ' solution of the 
problem.' We see so many problems, as it were, 
set up in a row, and each is supposed to have a 
solution somewhere, like so many poisons and their 
antidotes. The game is to find the solution. l A 
solution must be found,' say the newspapers oracu- 
larly, and we all cry our nostrums in the market- 
place. Eventually the political parties begin to 
fight over one of them, and then its fortune is made. 
The game is played more often with temperance 
than with anything else. The number of solutions 
is so great, and each has such splendid testimonials, 
that the bewildered public does not know which to 
choose. By a solution is meant some system or 
scheme which shall be a short cut to virtue, and shall 
accomplish by a wave of the legislative wand that 
which all the efforts of all the saints and sages have 
failed to achieve in a score of centuries. If it does 
not profess to do quite so much as that, it promises 
at least a great reformation, and therein lies its 
attractiveness. 

The belief in a solution of the drink problem in 
this sense is a delusion, and its domination is mis- 



INTRODUCTORY AND PERSONAL 9 

ehievous, because it turns away the eyes of people 
from the straight and narrow way, and fixes them 
on an alluring vision, which they cannot reach. 
No one can study the actualities at first hand 
without discovering that alcoholic indulgence is far 
too deeply rooted in human nature to be dug out by 
any summary process. The most despotic power 
could not do it, for its decrees would not be executed. 
The sooner we get rid of the solution fetish and its 
specious promises, the more clearly shall we see 
the way before us, and the more firmly tread it. To 
that end I would say — pay less attention to words 
and more to actual life. 

Another lesson derived from observation may be 
mentioned here. The reader will perhaps notice in 
this volume an omission unusual in a book on drink, 
and needing some explanation. Nothing, or very 
little, is said about the evils of drink. They have 
been so often and so fully detailed that I thought it 
unnecessary to repeat them, but as a frequenter of 
public-houses I feel bound to say something on the 
subject. I think the individual harm done by drink 
— the absolute degradation and ruin, the misery and 
cruelty resulting — cannot possibly be over-stated. 
But the collective harm seems to me often exag- 
gerated. People speak as if they believe that the 
abolition of drink would virtually put an end to 
poverty, vice, and crime, and that all the money 
saved from the public-house would be sheer gain and 
spent on useful things. Singular delusion. Is 
there no poverty, vice, and crime in abstemious 



10 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

countries ? Ten times more than in our own drunken 
one. And with us ' nine-tenths of the crimes are 
crimes against property, and would not be affected 
by drunkenness' (Judicial Statistics, 1901). Even 
crimes of violence do not correspond with the amount 
of drink and drunkenness. The consumption of 
drink in the United Kingdom in 1899 was about 
8 per cent, higher than the average for 1894-8, and 
the police drunkenness in England and Wales was 
15 per cent, higher; but the crimes of violence— 
namely, common assaults, aggravated assaults, as- 
saults on constables, felonious and malicious wound- 
ing — decreased 1.62 per cent. (Introduction to 
Judicial Statistics, 1901). I do not seek to extenu- 
ate intemperance. Far from it. I have an intense 
abhorrence of it, and regard a drunken person with 
an unchristian disgust and contempt of which I am 
sometimes ashamed. But I see that there are other 
things, less tangible and visible, but not less degrad- 
ing. Intemperance is not a moral disease, only a 
symptom. The disease, the real malady that manifests 
itself in this and many other forms, is that moral 
weakness which prefers immediate gratification to 
ultimate good. And the symptoms are largely 
interchangeable, though several may co-exist to- 
gether. Drink and gambling, for instance, are to a 
great extent complementary; as one wanes the other 
waxes. The sober nations in the south of Europe 
are fierce and incorrigible gamblers ; and in our own 
country, as the habit of intoxication has dropped 
into disfavour lower and lower in the social scale, its 



INTRODUCTORY AND PERSONAL 11 

place has been taken by betting, which has become 
increasingly prevalent among the working classes. 1 

I have watched the process myself and have 
made some investigation into the prevalence of 
betting. There is no doubt that money saved from 
the public-house goes chiefly into the pockets of 
bookmakers. The vice is morally more degrading 
than indulgence in drink, for it appeals to a baser 
motive and it causes a vast amount of poverty, misery, 
and crime. The police constantly get the most 
piteous letters from relatives begging them to stop 
it. The evidence given before the House of 
Lords Committee will bear me out. Here are the 
remarks of Mr. Horace Smith, metropolitan police- 
magistrate : 

' His experience was that while crime in general 
was decreasing, cases of fraud and embezzlement were 
increasing, and he believed this was due to betting. 
People started betting, and when they lost they be- 
gan to rob. . . . 

' Is not betting among the poor increased owing 
to its prevalence among the rich ? — I cannot help sus- 
pecting it, but I cannot say that it is. In my great- 
grandfather's day they used to get drunk and roll 
under the table. I am glad, however, that poor peo- 
ple are beginning to appreciate the fact that it is 
not correct to get drunk now. I should like to be 
able to say the same thing in regard to betting, but 
I am afraid it is impossible. ' 2 

1 The prosecutions for gaming increased 116.36 per cent, in 
1895-9 over 1880-4 (Judicial Statistics, 1901). Those for 
drunkenness in the same periods show a marked fall (see 
Chapter III). 

8 Times, February 15, 1902. 



12 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

So, too, the Bev. J. W. Horsley, formerly chaplain 
of Clerkenwell Prison. When chaplain, he ' saw 
that betting was increasing very much, and had heard 
from chaplains since he left that it was increasing 
still more now.' On the other hand, ' he could say 
that there is much less drinking among working men 
than there was years ago. ' 1 

Betting is only one of several alternative vices, 
which are often supposed to be the monopoly of the 
idle rich, but are enormously prevalent in the lower 
social strata. I have heard betting defended on the 
ground that men who do not bet spend their money 
on women, and there is no doubt some truth in this 
allegation. However, it is not my purpose to write 
a treatise on vice. I merely wish to show that 
the whole question touches much wider and deeper 
issues than are dreamt of in the problem-and-solution 
philosophy. We cannot assume that if by some 
device the poorer classes were prevented from 
spending on the publican the monstrous proportion 
of their earnings which still goes into his pocket — 
and I fully agree that it is monstrous — they would 
devote it to any worthier object. In other words they 
do not spend it to please him but to please themselves. 
The bearing of this fundamental fact is fully discussed 
later on. The ultimate lesson to be drawn from it is 
that the only ' solution ' lies in the moral law working 
through the individual. 

With regard to total abstinence my own opinion 
is that for habitual inebriates abstinence is the only 

1 Times, March 20, 1902. 



INTRODUCTORY AND PERSONAL 13 

chance, and that many other people are better in 
health without alcoholic liquor. But for many it is 
a good thing. I know it is a good thing for myself. 
I have virtually abstained on various occasions for 
months together and have no difficulty in doing so. 
Nor does it affect me prejudicially at first. But 
after a time my brain suffers from lack of nutrition 
and will not work so well. I derive immediate 
benefit from the use of wine or beer. Perhaps I 
should add that I come of abstemious parentage 
and was very sparing all my youth. Once when at 
school I got a wound on the finger at cricket, which 
obstinately refused to heal. At last the surgeon, 
having exhausted his art, ordered me a glass of port 
wine every day. The place healed at once. I have 
seen many cases in which the moderate use of 
alcoholic liquor as an article of diet has been equally 
beneficial. But it is a mistake to lay down abso- 
lute rules. There is no law applicable to everybody ; 
individuals differ so much. I suppose it is true 
enough that many people drink too much, yet never 
exceed to intoxication. But then, we are all always 
doing things ' too much.' "We eat too much, work 
too much, and talk too much. What is ' too much '? 
WTiat is the final test and the object of life? Let 
us remember that there is something more obnoxious 
to God and man than mere physical excess : and that 
is self -righteousness, and the desire to regulate our 
neighbours' lives by some little formula which hap- 
pens to suit ourselves. 



14 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



CHAPTER II 

DRINK IN THE PAST 

Excessive indulgence in strong drink has prevailed 
in this country from the earliest times. We may- 
go back century after century until all records fail, 
and find the same complaints about the appalling 
havoc wrought by drink, the bad habits of the people, 
the superabundance of public-houses and the need 
for measures of reform, reappearing again and again 
as something new. The evidence left by writers 
from age to age is sufficiently continuous to show 
that we have always been a drunken nation, and 
sufficiently explicit to prove beyond the possibility 
of denial that in times past the evil has been incom- 
parably greater than anything within modern ex- 
perience. As with crime, poverty, ignorance, brutal 
customs, and the prevalence of disease, so with drink 
— the ' good old times ' of which we hear so much 
were disfigured by a condition of things which would 
be intolerable in the present day. In what follows 
I shall try to make good these observations by 
putting together some of the more interesting facts 
recorded in the past. For that purpose I have 
drawn freely on various authors and particularly on 



DRINK IN THE PAST 15 

Valpy French and Lecky. So few people, however, 
appear to be acquainted with those writers that I 
make no apology for reproducing a good deal of 
matter from their pages, together with some of 
my own. 

We do not know much about the ancient Britons, 
but it is recorded that they used three kinds of in- 
toxicating liquor — mead or metheglin made from 
honey, beer made from barley, and cider; and, 
however sober they may have been in ordinary life, 
they could on occasions get drunk and disorderly 
with anybody. The occasions were mostly religious 
festivals, and it is worth noting that ever since, up 
to the present day, religious ceremonies have always 
been observed by the common people as their chief 
opportunities for drunkenness. Weddings, christen- 
ings, and, above all, funerals are celebrated in this 
way, which explains the true object of burial clubs. 
The line i We drew his club money this morning ' 
in a recent comic song has an inner meaning which 
might escape the uninitiated. But that is a digres : 
si on. The Romans, who appreciated strong drink, like 
all conquering races, introduced wine and viticulture, 
but under the Saxons mead and beer were still the 
chief liquors. These heroes brought with them the 
custom of pledging healths, which continued through 
succeeding centuries until a comparatively recent 
period, and has been repeatedly blamed by different 
observers at various times as a great cause of in- 
temperance in the higher ranks of society. Probably 
with justice. If not the cause, it is certainly the 



16 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

occasion of drunkenness. Its abandonment by Eng- 
lish society, save in a ceremonious sense, during the 
nineteenth century has coincided with a notable im- 
provement, while in other countries where it is still 
practised — Scandinavia and Hungary — orgies were 
common only the day before yesterday, and are not 
unknown to-day. Among the more sober nations of 
Europe, on the other hand, it has never obtained. 

The Saxons were mighty eaters and drinkers. 
The mead-horn plays a great part in the very earliest 
literature, and already in the sixth century the 
temperance movement definitely began. Members of 
the Church of England Temperance Society will be 
glad to know that it began with the Church, but 
that, unfortunately, was because the Church required 
it. St. Gildas the Wise (a.d. 570), observing with 
pain that not only the laity but also the clergy were 
scandalously given to habits of intoxication, issued 
some rules to his monks, and ordained that ' if 
any one, through drinking too freely, gets thick of 
speech so that he cannot join in the psalmody, he is 
to be deprived of his supper.' This does not err on 
the side of severity, and the test is charmingly naive, 
but at any rate the blame was laid on the culprit. 
St. David (a.d. 569) took a more modern view and 
punished the publican in addition, so to speak. His 
monks were also accustomed to go about and get 
drunk in a friendly way, so he ordained among other 
rules that ' he that forces another to get drunk out 
of hospitality must do penance as if he had got drunk 
himself.' However, things seem to have gone on 



DRINK IN THE PAST 17 

much the same until we come to King Edgar, who, 
at the instance of Dunstan, made the first attempt at 
sobriety by Act of Parliament — if the anachronism 
may be allowed— as near as may be 1,000 years ago. 
He suppressed a great number of ale-houses, and, in 
order to lessen the depth of his subjects' potations, 
invented ' drinking to pegs/ which would be equiva- 
lent to regulating the size of the tumbler. People 
used to drink then out of wooden pots holding half 
a gallon, and the King had eight pegs or pins 
inserted, dividing the pot into so many doses of half 
a pint, like a medicine bottle. But alas for human 
attempts to circumvent the demon of drink ! Drink- 
ing to pegs presently became a merry pastime, and 
a means of encouraging intoxication, like ' buzzing ' 
in the nineteenth century; and at no distant date 
Anselm had to forbid his clergy expressly to ' go to 
drinking-bouts and drink to pegs.' Meanwhile the 
Danes had come upon the scene and made things 
worse, as they were still more valiant potmen than the 
Saxons and more given to toasts. ' Waes hael ' and 
' drinc hael ' — if that is right — went more merrily 
than ever. The Normans are credited with having 
introduced some refinement, but, like other con- 
querors, they went down in their turn before the 
conquered. William of Malmesbury (a.d. 1130) 
remarks that ' the Saxon nobility passed entire nights 
and days in drinking, and consumed their whole 
substance in mean and despicable houses ' ; and he 
adds that they imparted the qualities of over-eating 
and over-drinking to their conquerors. At this time 



18 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

the fame of English beer and its effects had travelled 
far, for Innocent II., who became Pope in 1130, 
passed some sarcastic comments on our national 
habits. 

In the thirteenth century we come across early- 
closing. It was not enforced directly in the interests 
of temperance, but because of the increase of crime 
fostered by public-houses in London. By the 
Statuta Civitatis London., passed in 1285, taverns 
were forbidden to remain open after curfew in the 
metropolis. But in spite of legislative interference 
they continued to increase and multiply, and in 1330 
complaints were made of ' the great number of 
taverns set up in back lanes, corners, and suspicious 
places.' So things went on for 150 years, until in 
1495 power was given to the justices to suppress 
and control ale-houses. In the reign of Edward VI. 
the first attempt was made to control the evil by 
means of licensing. ' For as much as intolerable 
hurts and troubles to the commonwealth of this 
realm doth daily grow and increase through such 
abuses and disorders as are had and used in common 
ale-houses and other places called tippling houses,' 
Acts were passed in 1551, 1552, giving further power 
to the magistrates over them, and providing that all 
such places should be licensed. Once started in this 
direction, the authorities were compelled to return 
again and again to the Sisyphean task, and thence- 
forward the road is strewn with innumerable 
legislative failures. The first Acts of Edward VI. 
being found inadequate, more were passed in the 



DRINK IN THE PAST 19 

following year, but thirty years later Camden found 
things as bad as ever, or, as he thought, worse. 
Like other moralists in every period, he believed 
his own times to be disgraced by something un- 
known before. He maintained that drunkenness 
was still a recent vice in his day (1581), that there 
had been a time when the English were ' of all the 
northern nations the most commended for their 
sobriety, ' and that ' they first learnt in their wars in 
the Netherlands to drown themselves with im- 
moderate drinking.' The times to which he alluded 
must have been those of Boadicea. He ought to 
have known better, for there was no concealment 
about it in the previous century. As Dr. Valpy 
French says, * the consumption of strong drink at 
public entertainments was something prodigious in 
the fifteenth century. At the banquet upon the occa- 
sion of the installation of George Neville, Archbishop 
of York, in 1464, no less than 300 tuns of ale and 
100 tuns of wine were consumed. ' He further quotes 
an old writer on the practice of the common people 
at weddings: * When they come home from church 
then beginneth excess of eatyng and drynking and 
as much is waisted in one daye as were sufficient for 
the two newe-married folkes halfe a year to lyve on.' 
To do Camden justice, however, they seem to have 
been pretty bad in his day. Of that we have abun- 
dant evidence. Stephen Perlin, a French physician 
who was in England about the time of Henry VIII. 's 
death, wrote: * The English, one with another, 
are joyous and are very fond of music; they are 



20 PRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

also great drinkers.' The Rev, William Kethe 

preached about Sunday in 1570 - which holy day 
the multitudes call their revelyng day, which day 
is spout in bul-beatings, beare-beatings, bowlings, 
dicyng, cardyng, daunsynges, drunkenness, and 
whoredomo/ Philip Stubbes (1583) wrote that 1 ho 
public-houses were 4 crowded from morning till 
night with inveterate drunkards.' Bacon saw enough 
to convince him that 4 all the crimes on the earth do 
no! destroy so many of the human race nor alienate 
so much property as drunkenness.' The testimony 
of Shakespeare (particularly [ago) and of the other 
dramatists of the period is too familiar to need quota- 
tion. At this period the upper classes drank wine 
and the lower still stuck to beer, but spirits, the in- 
vention of which dates from the earlier Plantagenet 
days, were beginning to be known. Geneva, or gin, 
was brought home from the Netherlands, and Irish 
settlers introduced the distillation of usquebaugh. 

In 1603 dames 1. again invoked the aid of legis- 
lation by an Act to restrain the inordinate haunting 
and tippling in inns, ale-houses, and other victualling 
houses. It Avas declared that the ' ancient, true, 
and principal use of inns, ale-houses, and victualling 
houses was for the receipt, relief, and lodging of 
wayfaring people travelling from place to place,' 
and that they were ' not meant for entertainment 
and harbouring of lewd and idle people \o spend and 
consume their money and their time in lewd and 
drunken manner/ albeit that was the identical use 
to which they had been put from time immemorial. 



DRIXK EST THE PAST 21 

Innkeepers permitting unlawful drunkenness were 
fined 10.?. This met with such gratifying success 
that only four years later it was found necessary to 
pass another Act for ' the better suppressing of ale- 
houses, whereof the multitudes and abuses have been 
and are found intolerable, and still do and are like to 
increase. 7 Also for ' repressing the odious and loath- 
some sin of drunkenness/ which, it was mistakenly 
thought, had ' of late grown into common use within 
this realm, being the root and foundation of many 
other enormous sins, as bloodshed, stabbing, murder, 
swearing, fornication, adultery and suchlike, to the 
great dishonour of God and of our nation, the over- 
throw of many good arts and manual trades, the 
disabling of divers workmen, and the general im- 
poverishing of many good subjects, abusively wasting 
the good creatures of God.' Drunkards were fined 
55. for each conviction. No improvement followed, 
and in 1610 more Acts were passed. Innkeepers 
breaking the law had their license suspended for 
three years. Notwithstanding all this, Charles I. 
was presently compelled to try again with yet an- 
other Act ' for the further restraint of tippling in 
inns and ale-houses ' ; but severity appears to have 
led to illicit trade, for we find that in 1627 a penalty 
of 205. or a whipping was imposed for keeping 
an ale-house without license. Some interesting 
evidence of the state of things about this time is 
forthcoming. Burton wrote in 1621 : ■ TVhat im- 
moderate drinking in every place! How they 
flock to the tavern! Tis now the fashion of our 



22 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

times, an honour. 'Tis now come to that pass that he 
is no gentleman, a very milksop, a clown, of no bring- 
ing up, that will not drink. "lis now no fault, there 
be so many brave examples to bear one out : the sole 
contention, who can drink most and fox his fellow 
soonest. 'Tis the summum bonum of our tradesmen, 
their felicity, life and soule, their chiefe comfort, to 
be merry together in an ale-house or tavern; they 
will labour hard all day long, to be drunk at night, 
and spend totius anni lab ores in a tippling feast.' 
Another writer in the year 1627 says: ' The taverns, 
ale-houses, and the very streets are so full of 
drunkards in all parts of this kingdom, that by the 
sight of them it is better known what this detestable 
and odious vice is, than by any definition whatsoever. ' 
Decker observes that in 1632 ' a whole street was 
in some places but a continuous ale-house, not a 
shop to be seen between red lattice and red lattice.' 
According to Bishop Earle, the public-house was 
the common rendezvous for all classes. The clergy 
took their share with the rest, and in 1641 a com- 
mittee was appointed to inquire into the scandal. 
From some curious extracts quoted by Dr. French 
from the Darlington parochial registers it appears 
that when a strange clergyman came to preach he 
was always provided with quarts of sack or bottles 
of brandy for the occasion. 

The Puritans effected no improvement, if, in- 
deed, they were not just as bad themselves. Pepys 
observes of General Monk's troops in 1659: l The 
city is very open-handed to the soldiers; they are 



DRINK IN THE PAST 23 

most of them drunk all day. ' And a letter to a 
French nobleman about this time (' Harleian Mis- 
cellany ') says: ' There is within this city, and 
in all the towns of England which I have passed 
through, so prodigious a number of houses where 
they sell a certain drink called ale, that I think a 
good half of the inhabitants may be denominated 
ale-house keepers. These are a meaner sort of 
cabarets. . . . There the gentlemen sit and spend 
much of their time drinking. . . . Your lordship will 
not believe me that the ladies of greatest quality suffer 
themselves to be treated in one of these taverns 
where a courtezan in other cities would scarcely 
vouchsafe to be entertained.' A fervid gentleman 
of the name of Reeves wrote a tract called ' A Plea 
for Nineveh ' in 1657, in which a terrific onslaught 
was made on the prevalent vices of over-eating and 
over-drinking. The latter, he said, had spread to 
women (bearing out the foregoing letter) : ' Neither 
the bashfulness nor modesty of women can restrain 
them from participating in the guilt. . . . We 
amongst ourselves may find a multitude of these in- 
temperate sottish women who will quaff with the 
most riotous, and give pledge for pledge and take off 
cup for cup.' With the Restoration, of course, the 
bowl flowed with renewed vigour, and measures had 
to be taken to check adulteration, which is innocently 
believed by ninety-nine people in a hundred to be a 
modern invention. Penalties of 100?. were imposed 
on merchants and 40£. on retailers. Up to this time, 
and nearly till the close of the century, wine and 



24 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

beer remained the universal liquors. According to 
Mr. Lecky, from whom I derive many of the facts 
about the eighteenth century, the amount of beer 
brewed in 1688 was 12,400,000 barrels for a popula- 
tion a little over 5,000,000, which gives an average 
consumption of about ninety gallons a head (the 
present amount is about thirty gallons). British 
distilleries up to the time of the Revolution were 
quite inconsiderable, and French brandy too dear to 
be within the reach of the poor. The Government 
of the Revolution, however, in its wisdom, took a 
step fraught with disastrous consequences. In order 
to encourage native industries or to spite the French, 
it absolutely prohibited the importation of spirits, 
and threw open the trade of distilling, on the payment 
of comparatively trifling duties, to all its subjects. 
The English manufacture of spirits spread rapidly, 
and the people gradually acquired a passion for gin. 
The amount of spirits produced in 1684 was 527,000 
gallons ; in 1714 it had risen to 2,000,000, in 1735 to 
5,394,000, and in 1742 to 7,160,000 gallons. The 
habits of the working classes at the beginning of the 
century are described in strangely familiar terms in 
Defoe's tract on ' Giving Alms no Charity ' (1704). 
' There is nothing more frequent than for an English- 
man to work till he has got his pockets full of money 
and then go and be idle, or perhaps drink till it is all 
gone; and ask him in his cups what he intends, hell 
tell you honestly he will drink as long as it lasts and 
then go to work for more. ' A writer in ' The British 
Merchant ' of the same period, contrasting English 






DRINK IN THE PAST 25 

habits with French frugality, remarks: ' It is well 
known that our people spend half of their money 
upon drink.' So also the Rev. John Disney, J.P. 
(1729) : l Labouring men very often consume there 
(in the ale-house) on the Lord's day what they have 
gotten all the week before and let their families beg 
or steal for a subsistence the week following.' Gin- 
drinking seems to have got fairly hold of London by 
1725, when a committee of Middlesex magistrates 
stated that there were in the metropolis, exclusive 
of the City of London and Southwark, 6,187 houses 
and shops wherein ' geneva or other strong waters ' 
were sold by retail. The population was then about 
700,000. In some cases every seventh house was 
employed in the sale of intoxicants (Dr. French). 
The Grand Jury of Middlesex declared once more 
that much the greater part of the poverty, the 
murders, the robberies of London might be traced 
to this single cause. To judge from Hogarth's 
appalling representation of Gin Lane, women were 
the most given to spirit-drinking, which is entirely 
in accordance with modern experience. In 1728 an 
attempt was made to check the spirit traffic, by 
licensing and higher duties ; but the Act was evaded, 
did more harm than good by causing illicit trade, and 
was repealed four years later. In 1736, the Middle- 
sex magistrates presented a petition to Parliament 
declaring ' that the drinking of geneva and other dis- 
tilled waters had for some years past greatly in- 
creased; that the constant and excessive use thereof 
had destroyed thousands of his Majesty's subjects; 



26 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



that great numbers of others were by its use rendered 
unfit for useful labour, debauched in morals, and 
drawn into all manner of vice and wickedness,' &c. 
Thereupon came the famous Gin Act of 1736. Legis- 
lators, in their simplicity, thought that as the evil 
arose because gin had been made easy of access, it 
could be abolished by making gin difficult of access. 
So they clapped on a duty of 205. in the gallon and 
fixed the retail license at 501. per annum. No half- 
measures, observe, but prohibition in all but name t 
The first result was an apparent decrease of consump- 
tion, but that lasted a very short time, and it soon 
became clear that the Act was much worse than a 
failure. Illicit trade sprang up, and greatly aug- 
mented the evil. Although 12,000 persons were pun- 
ished for infringing the law in two years, it flourished 
notwithstanding beyond all power of control. • Dis- 
tillers took out wine-licenses and sold a concoction 
of gin, sugar, and spice as wine, just as they do 
to-day in Norway and Sweden. Druggists put up 
gin in physic-bottles and called it c cholick water ' or 
1 gripe water, ' with the direction, ' Take two or three 
spoonfuls of this four or five times a day, or as often 
as the fit takes you.' Gin was openly sold in the 
taverns under fancy names. In short, the repressive 
Act gave a great stimulus to the traffic. The con- 
sumption in England and Wales rose from 11,000,000 
gallons in 1733 to nearly 20,000,000 in 1742, and there 
is not the slightest doubt that a most shocking state 
of things prevailed. From all accounts the condition 
of the people must have been just like that of the 



DRINK IN THE PAST 27 

Swedes and Norwegians down to the middle of the 
nineteenth century. They were sodden in spirits. 

' Such a shameful degree of profligacy prevailed/ 
says the contemporary historian, 1 ' that the retailers 
of this poisonous compound (gin) set up painted 
boards in public inviting people to be drunk for the 
small expense of one penny, assuring them they 
might be dead drunk for 2d and have straw for noth- 
ing; they accordingly provided cellars and places 
strewed with straw, to which they conveyed those 
wretches who were overwhelmed with intoxication : in 
these dismal caverns they lay until they had recov- 
ered some use of their faculties, and then they had 
recourse to the same mischievous potion.' 

Lord Lonsdale, speaking in the House of Lords 
in 1743, made these remarks: 

1 In every part of this great metropolis whoever 
shall pass along the streets will find wretchedness 
stretched upon the pavement, insensible and motion- 
less, and only removed by the charity of passengers 
from the danger of being crushed by carriages or 
trampled by horses or strangled with filth in the 
common sewers. . . . No man can pass a single hour 
in public places without meeting such objects or 
hearing such expressions as disgrace human nature — 
such as cannot be looked upon without horror or heard 
without indignation. . . . These liquors not only in- 
fatuate the mind but poison the body; they not 
only fill our streets with madness and our prisons 
with criminals, but our hospitals with cripples. . . . 
Those women who riot in this poisonous debauchery 
are quickly disabled from bearing children, or pro- 
duce children diseased from their birth.' 

1 Smollett, Hist, of England, ch. xviii. 



28 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

The ' History of London * by William Maitland, 
F.R.S., published about this time, gives us some 
precise data which are of great value, because the 
author was a scientific man, a careful and dis- 
passionate observer, and a contemporary. There 
were, he says, at that time in London 95,968 houses, 
of which 15,288 sold drink for consumption on the 
premises. These numbers were ascertained by actual 
survey, so that there can be no possibility of doubt 
about them. The population was reckoned, by an 
extremely careful computation of the Bills of 
Mortality, at 725,903, which is clearly not far wrong 
because it agrees with the number of houses. 
There was, therefore, one pothouse to every six 
houses and to every forty-seven persons. At the 
census in 1896 the proportion was one to every 
seventy-seven houses and to every 585 persons. If 
all licenses, both for ' on ' and ' off ' consumption, be 
included, the proportion was only one to 424 persons. 
Public-houses were, therefore, about twelve times 
more numerous in proportion to the population a 
hundred and fifty years ago than they are now. And 
it is interesting to note their character. Of the 
whole number 8,659 were ' brandy-shops/ 5,975 were 
ale-houses, and only 654 inns and taverns. This 
disposes of the cherished fallacy that before our 
own degenerate times public-houses were places of 
refreshment for man and beast, not mere bars. On 
the contrary, more than half the whole number — 
namely, the 8,659 brandy-shops — were nothing but 
spirit bars, and 5,975 more were mere pothouses. 



DRINK IN THE PAST 29 

Further, the spirit bars were crowded together in 
a comparatively small area eastward of the City 
and on the Surrey side of the river. In the City 
and the West-end they were comparatively few. 
The l congested ' areas in those days must have been 
congested indeed. In some of them one third or 
one half the houses must have been devoted to drink. 
The worst districts in London to-day sink into 
insignificance beside this. We may wonder how so 
many publicans managed to exist. It is explained 
by the consumption, which was prodigious. The 
quantity consumed in London in a year was : — Beer, 
70,955,604 gallons; spirits, 11,205,627 gallons; 
wine, 30,040 tuns. Leaving out wine, we get an 
annual consumption per head of — Beer, 90 gallons; 
spirits, 14 gallons. At present the quantities are 
about 30 gallons of beer and 1 gallon of spirits. 
The effects of such indulgence were in keeping with 
the figures. 

1 The excessive drinking of spirituous liquors, ' says 
Mr. Maitland, ' has so enervated the stomachs of the 
populace as to render them incapable of performing 
the offices of digestion, whereby the appetite is so 
much depraved that its inclination to food is much 
lessened and the consumption of provisions greatly 
diminished; which has occasioned victuals, instead 
of rising, to fall in price very considerably, to the 
no small loss of the landed interest.' 

The cry was so loud against the Gin Act as the 
cause of illicit trade that the Legislature executed 
another manoeuvre in the game of see-saw, and 



30 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

practically threw the trade open by reducing the 
duty from 20s. to Id. and the license from 501. to 11. 
Now it is the turn of the individualist, who would 
throw the trade open to-day, to mark the result. 
Did it do any good? Not the least. In 1749 the 
number of private gin-shops within the Bills of 
Mortality were computed at 17,000 according to 
' The Gentleman's Magazine,' and crime and im- 
morality of every kind were still increasing. In 

1750, London physicians stated that there were in 
or about the metropolis 14,000 cases of illness, most 
of them beyond the reach of medicine (true enough, 
no doubt), directly attributable to gin. Fielding, in 

1751, declared that gin was ' the principal sustenance 
(if it may so be called) of more than 100,000 persons 
within the metropolis/ while Bishop Benson accused 
1 those accursed spirituous liquors, which are so easy 
to be had, and in such quantities drunk/ of having 
1 changed the very nature of our people; and they 
will, if continued to be drunk, destroy the very race 
of people themselves.' But more eloquent than any 
denunciations is the following episode, baldly related 
in ' The Gentleman's Magazine ' for 1748. It indi- 
cates a state of public opinion which is to us almost 
incredible, and marks the prodigious gulf between 
our own times and the eighteenth century : 

1 At a christening in Beddington, in Surrey, the 
nurse was so intoxicated that after she had undressed 
the child, instead of laying it in the cradle, she put 
it behind a large fire, which burnt it to death in a 
few minutes. She was examined before a magistrate 



DRINK IN THE PAST 31 

and said she was quite stupid and senseless, so that 
she took the child for a log of wood; on which she 
was discharged.' 

The clamour now was that ' the great increase 
in the number of gin-shops and the low price of the 
article were the cause of its excessive use amongst 
the lower orders/ so the Legislature was forced to 
turn to the weary task once more, and passed fresh 
Acts in 1751. Distillers were forbidden to retail 
themselves or to sell to unlicensed publicans, and 
tippling debts could not be recovered at law. These 
measures had a ' real and very considerable effect/ 
says Mr. Lecky; and two years later they were 
reinforced by further regulations about licensing 
and the conduct of public-houses, which, * though 
much less ambitious than the Act of 1736, were far 
more efficacious.' In short, reasonable legislation 
proved to be of some use where severity and laxity 
had both done nothing but harm. Gin-drinking 
began to fall off again in favour of beer, to the moral 
and physical advantage of the people, precisely in 
accordance with modern experience in Scandinavia. 
The whole story is exceedingly instructive, both as 
a lesson in unwise legislation and as illustrating the 
difference between different kinds of intoxicants. 
Writers on the subject generally class them all 
together under the comprehensive term of ' alcohol/ 
but there is an immense difference in their effects. 
Spirits, and spirits alone, produce the absolute ruin 
of body and mind which makes the true dipsomaniac. 
And even among spirits some are more injurious 



32 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

than others. Gin and brandy produce certain 
definite diseases of the body of which whisky and 
rum are innocent. There is, therefore, genuine 
truth at the bottom of the ribald old song : 

' Brandy and gin blows out the skin 

And makes you feel very queer: 
Then damn his eyes whoever tries 
To rob a poor cove of his beer.' 

In spite of the change indicated, however, there 
was no progressive improvement in the habits of 
the people. Nor could any be expected when the 
upper classes set the example of habitual intem- 
perance. The fact is too familiar to need any proof 
here, and one quotation must suffice. Sir Gilbert 
Elliot, writing to his wife in 1787, says: l Men of 
all ages drink abominably. Fox drinks what I 
should call a great deal, Sheridan excessively, and 
Grey (Lord Howick) more than any of them. Pitt, 
I am told, drinks as much as any one.' In fact, all 
through the eighteenth century leading statesmen, 
men of letters, judges, divines, and other persons of 
high position habitually drank to excess, and nobody 
thought much of it. What, then, was the use of 
trying to check the common people? A poem by 
James Smith, called the c Upas Tree in Marylebone 
Lane/ meaning the spirit bar, gives one a brief 
glimpse into the public-house of the period: 

6 The house that surrounds it stands first in the row, 
Two doors at right angles swing open below, 
And the children of misery daily steal in, 
And the poison they draw they denominate Gin, 



DRINK IN THE PAST 33 

1 There enter the prude and the reprobate boy, 
The mother of grief and the daughter of joy; 
The serving-maid slim and the serving-man stout, 
They quickly steal in and they slowly reel out.' 

Swing-doors, bar-drinking, female customers, and 
young people are less modern features of the traffic 
than is generally supposed. Indeed, the traffic has 
no modern features, except its comparative respect- 
ability. Adulteration abounded to an extent un- 
dreamt of to-day. The ' good old times ' when 
taverns were places of legitimate refreshment, and 
nothing but ' honest home-brewed ' was drunk, never 
existed. Here is a rap for the brewers from ' The 
Gentleman's Magazine ' of 1762: 

1 Taxes upon taxes, and beer sold at 3%d. not worth 
f<2. ! Brewers pining at the hardships they labour 
under, and rolling away in their coaches and six to 
their several villas to drown their grief in burgundy 
and champagne.' 

Towards the end of the century, medical men be- 
gan to take up the cause of temperance from the pro- 
fessional point of view. It began, in 1788, with the 
academic thesis of a certain Dr. Trotter, of Edin- 
burgh, who took the effects of drunkenness on the 
human body for his theme, and afterwards expanded 
it into a book, published in 1804. There was also 
fresh legislation from time to time, which it would 
be tedious to particularise. In spite of all this, a 
Christmas in London is thus described by Charles 
Knight as late as 1824 : 

' The outdoor aspects of London enjoyment were 



34 DKINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

not unobserved by me. Honestly to speak, it was 
a dismal spectacle. In every broad thoroughfare 
and every alley there was drunkenness abroad; not 
shamefaced drunkenness creeping to its home, but 
rampant, insolent, outrageous drunkenness. No 
decent woman, even in broad daylight, could at the 
holiday seasons dare to walk alone in the Strand or 
Pall Mali.' 

That cannot be said to-day of any thoroughfare at 
any season. 

About the same time the organised temperance 
movement was initiated. The honour belongs to 
Ireland, where the earliest societies in the United 
Kingdom were established. From Belfast the move- 
ment speedily crossed the Irish Channel to Greenock 
and Glasgow. England followed in 1830 with 
societies at Leeds and Bradford. Teetotalism — from 
the Lancashire colloquialism for total (abstinence) — 
came in 1832. Meanwhile the Legislature had been 
busy again with the important Acts of 1828, which 
are still the foundation of the licensing system in 
Great Britain, and with the Duke of Wellington's 
famous Beer-house Act of 1830, ' to permit the general 
sale of beer and cider by retail in England. ' Twenty 
years later it was pronounced a failure by a Select 
Committee of the House of Lords, and there is no 
doubt that it did not have the intended effect of 
cheeking the consumption of spirits by encouraging 
beer and cider. The state of things which prompted 
the experiment was certainly very bad. The Middle- 
sex magistrates once more took the initiative and 



DKINK IN THE PAST 35 

brought up the subject at the January Sessions in 
1830. Sergeant Bell alluded to the increase of con- 
sumption of gin. Sir George Hampson said that the 
gin-shops were now decorated and fitted up with small 
private doors, through which women of the middle and 
even above the middle classes of society were not 
ashamed to enter and take their dram. Sir Richard 
Birnie said that there were 72 cases brought to Bow 
Street on the Monday previous for absolute and 
beastly drunkenness, and, what was worse, mostly 
women who had been picked up in the streets where 
they had fallen dead drunk. In 1834 a Select Com- 
mittee of the House of Commons was appointed to 
investigate the subject, and their report contains 
some interesting evidence. A Mr. Mark Moore de- 
scribed what went on in a number of East-end public- 
houses. They had large rooms at the back, invisible 
from the street, and holding from 100 to 300 persons, 
who consisted of sailors, girls of the town, and Jew 
crimps. There they drank and danced all night ' in 
a dreadful state.' He further had fourteen public- 
houses carefully watched for a week, and the number 
of customers that entered was counted. There were 
142,453 men, 108,593 women, and 18,391 children; 
total, 269,437. This gives an average number per 
diem for each public-house of 2,750. The prospect 
of half that number would make the modern 
publican's mouth water — if a publican's mouth ever 
waters. It may be said that the public-houses were 
less numerous then. Par from it. They were nearly 
twice as numerous in proportion to population. 



36 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

Far more instructive, however, than any statistics 
are the contemporary descriptions of what used to 
take place sixty years ago. Mr. George Wilson, a 
grocer of Westminster, gave the following account 
of a Sunday morning: 

1 Last Sunday morning I arose about seven o'clock, 
and looked from my bedroom at the gin-palace oppo- 
site to me. I saw it surrounded with customers; 
amongst them I saw two coal-porters with women 
who appeared to be their wives and a little child 
about six or seven years old; these forced their way 
through the crowd; after much struggling they got 
to the bar, and came out again in a short time, one 
of the women so intoxicated as to be unable to walk ; 
she fell flat on the pavement with her legs partly in 
the shop and her person exposed ; the three who were 
with her attempted to raise her, but they were so 
intoxicated as to be unable to perform the task.' 

The crowd offered no assistance, but merely laughed, 
and continued passing in and out of the open doors 
past the prostrate woman, while the little child sat 
down and slapped her. 

' During this time a woman almost in a state of 
nudity, with a fine infant at her breast, the only dress 
being its nightshirt, followed by another child about 
eight years old, naked except a nightshirt, and with- 
out either shoes or stockings, followed a wretched- 
looking man into the house. I saw them struggling 
through the crowd to get to the bar; they all 
had their gin ; the infant had the first share from the 
woman's glass; they came back to the outside of the 
door, and there they could scarcely stand; the man 
and woman appeared to quarrel; the little child 






DKINK IN THE PAST 37 

in her arms cried, and the wretched woman beat it 
most unmercifully; the other little naked child ran 
across the road ; the woman called to it to come back ; 
it came back and she beat it ; they all went into the 
shop again, and had some more gin apparently to 
pacify the children.' 

That was between seven and eight in the morning 
on an ordinary Sunday in July 1834. Later in the 
day we get the following edifying scene: 

1 Last Sunday morning I had occasion to walk 
through the Broadway at a few minutes before 
eleven o'clock; I found the pavement before every 
gin-shop crowded; just as church time approached, 
the gin-shops sent forth their multitudes, swearing 
and fighting and bawling obscenely; some were 
stretched on the pavement insensibly drunk, while 
every few steps the footway was taken up by drunken 
wretches being dragged to the station-house by the 
police. ' 

These circumstantial descriptions of a main West- 
end thoroughfare by an eye-witness whose accuracy 
was not questioned in the slightest degree, were con- 
firmed by an independent observer from the other 
end of the town, Mr. Abraham Ellis, a Spitalfields 
weaver : 

' Those in the habit of drinking get so intoxicated 
on the Saturday night that they lie abed the best 
part of Sunday ; but a great many of them that can- 
not lie, that cannot rest, they are at the gin-shops on 
Sunday morning between six and seven o'clock, and 
from that time until they shut up for church you can 
scarcely get by the outside of the door ; the doors are 



38 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

continually opening, and there is a mob indoors com- 
ing in and out, so that it is impossible to count them. 
. . . About nine or ten o'clock you see many of them 
very much intoxicated, and hallooing and hooting, 
and the women likewise. I have seen the women lying 
down drunk, and the police have been obliged to 
lift them up bodily and take them away.' 

There appears to have been no regular or legal 
closing-time at this period, and publicans used to 
shut up very much when they pleased, early or late, 
or not at all. On Sunday they generally closed at 
eleven o'clock for church time, when some turned 
their customers out and others shut them in. At 
night there was often no closing, and drunken riots 
were common at three or four in the morning. 
Hence, probably, the large number of police-court 
charges. Drunkenness seems to have been ex- 
cessively rife among women and children everywhere. 
1 I am sorry to say/ said Mr. Broughton, a metro- 
politan police-magistrate, ' that I find a great number 
of women, and sometimes decent women, that it is 
shocking to see brought up.' In reference to the 
juvenile depravity, he spoke of the ' vast number of 
boys, for we are obliged to send them away in strings 
to the van, ' and of the young prostitutes, from twelve 
to fourteen years of age, who were brought up for 
being drunk and disorderly. In Lancashire, drinking 
was said to be particularly common among women 
and boys from fourteen to twenty years of age. One 
gentleman counted more women than men enter a 
public-house in Manchester on a Saturday, and it 



DRINK IN THE PAST 39 

was the custom to serve halfpennyworths of gin to 
children. In Scotland, Mr. Thomas Roberts said of 
the people that ' drunkenness forms a part of their 
education as much as learning A B C at school. 
These drinking schools are the domestic fireside; the 
parent takes it, and he gives a little to the child; he 
gives it as something that is excellent.' Women of 
the middle classes, he said, meaning tradespeople 
and superior artisans, were in the habit of going out 
and taking glasses of whisky in the forenoon ' by 
way of compliment.' In London a large proportion 
of the Poor Law relief was regularly spent at the 
nearest pothouse. According to an officer from 
Southwark, 301. out of every 1001. given in outdoor 
relief was spent in the gin-shop the same day, and 
another from St. Luke's stated that ' the reckless- 
ness of people in indulgence is quite frightful. It is 
well known that a large proportion of those who 
receive pensions or outdoor relief from our parish 
cannot resist the temptation of going into the first 
public-house or gin-shop, and at all times im- 
mediately after money is given, paupers will be 
found in the gin-shops.' Other evidence to the same 
effect shows that the custom was general. In some 
trades the men were compelled to drink as a con- 
dition of getting work, and to spend a regular pro- 
portion of their earnings on drink. This was the 
case with the coal-whippers, who had to take their 
engagements from the publicans. One of them gave 
the following account of the trade practice : ' When 
I want employment — me and the likes of me, of 



40 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

course — I have to go to the publican to get a job, to 
ask him for a job; and he tells me to go and sit 
down and he will give me an answer by and by. I 
go and sit down, and if I have twopence in my 
pocket of course I am obliged to spend it with a view 
of getting a job; and probably when two or three 
hours have elapsed there is about fifty or sixty people 
come on the same errand to the same person for a 
job. He keeps us three or four hours there; those 
that drink most get the most employment. ' There was 
something like a regular tariff amounting to nearly 
half the wages. A man in full work would earn up 
to 4s. Id. a day, of which he had to spend from Is. 8d. 
to 2s. in the public-house so long as the job lasted. 
The working-man 's account of this iniquitous business 
was fully confirmed by Lieutenant Arnold, R.N., and 
other gentlemen. 

I do not know that the individual capacity for 
drinking was greater in those days than it is now: 
probably not, but there were certainly some remark- 
able topers. Dr. Farre described the case of a man 
who used to drink three or four pints of gin daily, 
apparently for many years. His wife said she had 
known him drink seventy-two glasses of the usual 
dram at a sitting * to show what he could do.' 
Another case was the chairman of a notorious drink- 
ing club, a hearty octogenarian, who, when Dr. Farre 
knew him, had lived a i reformed ' life for thirty 
years on the modest allowance of one pint of brandy 
and six glasses of madeira per diem. These l drinking 
clubs ' were themselves an interesting sign of the 



DRINK IN THE PAST 41 

times, but they only concerned the upper classes, 
among whom intemperance was, by universal con- 
sent, already on the wane. 

The conclusions of the Committee deserve to be 
stated at length if I could afford the space. They 
thought the vice of intoxication, though declining in 
the upper classes, had increased in the lower, and 
now included in its victims men, women, and chil- 
dren. As to the effects, they ' are so many and so 
fearful to contemplate that it is as difficult as it is 
painful to enumerate even the outlines of them,' to 
wit : destruction of health, disease in every form and 
shape; premature decrepitude in the old; stunted 
growth, debility, and decay in the young; loss of life 
by paroxysms and accidents; delirium tremens; 
paralysis, idiocy, and violent death ; item, destruction 
of mental capacity and vigour ; item, irritation of all 
the worst passions of the heart; item, extinction of 
all moral and religious principle, violation of chastity, 
insensibility to shame, and indescribable degradation ; 
item, loss of productive labour, extensive loss of 
property, inefficiency of army and navy, injury to 
national reputation, injury to the British race, in- 
crease of pauperism, spread of crime, retardation of 
all improvement. They reckoned the general pecu- 
niary loss on all these counts, which I have abridged, 
to be ' little short of fifty millions sterling per 
annum.' It is the most comprehensive indictment 
ever drawn up. They recommended a heap of 
immediate measures, which are recommended as 
new and brilliant ideas to-day, and also some ulti- 



42 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

mate ones, including the absolute prohibition of the 
importation and distillation of spirits except for arts 
and medicine. They had evidently not studied, the 
proceedings of their predecessors just a hundred 
years before. 

One comforting reflection is suggested by the fore- 
going retrospect. It effectually disposes of the bogey 
of national destruction by inherited alcoholism. If 
there were much in it, most of us would be hopeless 
drunkards, for we have all probably had some drunken 
ancestors. Far too much has been made of the 
theory; it is not in keeping with modern science, 
which negatives the hereditary transmission of dis- 
ease, and it is flatly contradicted by the facts. I 
return to this question in the chapter on l The Forces 
of Intemperance.' 



43 



CHAPTER III 

THE DECLINE OP DRUNKENNESS 

In the previous chapter I have briefly sketched the 
history of drink in this country down to 1834. That 
year is chosen for a pause because it was the date of 
the remarkable inquiry alluded to, and because a new 
era began to set in about that time. Several circum- 
stances contributed to make this period stand out 
distinctly as a sort of dividing line between the old 
and the new. The metropolitan police force was or- 
ganised and established on its present basis just be- 
fore, the reign of Queen Victoria began shortly after 
with all the new social movements and changes — loco- 
motion, sanitation, education, free trade, and so on 
— that have been identified with it, including the 
development of the temperance movement. On her 
accession to the throne her Majesty added greatly to 
its prestige and influence by becoming patron of 
the important English organisation called ' The 
British and Foreign Temperance Society,' which had 
been founded in 1831. These and other circumstances 
are treated historically in Chapter V. on the Forces 
of Temperance. They are only mentioned now to 
explain the selection of the 1830-40 period as 



44 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

marking the close of ' drink in the past.' The quo- 
tations from the 1834 inquiry are sufficient evidence 
in themselves that, though the state of things was 
not so bad as it had been in the middle of the pre- 
vious century, such improvement as had taken place 
was not of a very effective character. We still see 
the people — men, women, and children — sodden with 
drink, lost to all sense of decency, revelling in degra- 
dation, and the most public thoroughfares given up 
regularly and in broad daylight to scenes of disorder 
which we can hardly realise to-day. 

I submit, therefore, that up to this period no sub- 
stantial, progressive, and lasting improvement had 
been effected. That it has been effected since no 
candid reader can deny. It is not merely that such 
wholesale outrages on public decency do not occur 
now, but that if they did occur public opinion among 
the people themselves would not permit them to 
continue for a day; the most callous would revolt at 
the idea. In other words, there has been a real 
improvement, an organic change, and it is not pos- 
sible to conceive a complete relapse into the condition 
of the past. Individual drunkards there are still, as 
bad as ever, and at times they become more 
numerous, mainly when trade is good and money 
plentiful; but the open, rampant, daylight drunken- 
ness-in-the-mass which history records has become 
a matter of history. 

The improvement has not been continuous. It 
has been interrupted by considerable fluctuations, 
but it has gone on through and in spite of them. 



THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 45 

Since the inquiry of 1834 there have been three others 
on a similar or larger scale, at intervals of twenty 
years, and these give a fair insight into the changes 
that have occurred in the intervening period. They 
were the inquiry into public-houses by a Select 
Committee of the House of Commons in 1854, that 
into intemperance by the House of Lords in 1876, 
and that of the Royal Commission on the operation 
of the liquor laws in 1896. 

In reading the report of the 1854 inquiry, one is 
first of all struck by the absence of any evidence 
approaching that previously quoted. Many witnesses, 
including several temperance agents of great experi- 
ence, told what they knew of the evils and abomi- 
nations of the liquor traffic, but what they had to 
tell is mild and colourless compared with the revela- 
tions of 1834. One can only conclude that the 
previous state of things had already ceased to exist, 
for if not they would have been ready enough to 
describe it. This negative testimony is borne out 
by much positive evidence of actual improvement. 
The number of police charges had generally and 
markedly declined; the character of public-houses 
had notably improved in the large towns, and they 
were conducted with much greater propriety. Pub- 
licans, police, working-men, and temperance agents 
united in testifying to the improvement on Sunday 
mornings. Working-men spoke emphatically of the 
increased sobriety among their own class. The Com- 
mittee itself came to the conclusion that c there are 
no doubt many publicans and beer-shop keepers 



46 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

who exercise the utmost vigilance to prevent drunk- 
enness on their premises, and to keep bad characters 
out of their houses.' They even had a good word 
for some of the much-abused beer-shops: ' There are 
highly rated houses under the beer-shop license in 
London and other places, kept by parties of respect- 
able character, conducted with propriety and even 
advantage to the neighbourhood, and which furnish 
a valuable accommodation to the middle and work- 
ing classes. ' Nevertheless great abuses remained, and 
the law was evaded in many respects. Drinking 
was carried on in houses only provided with off- 
licenses; gaming was permitted and adulteration 
practised. Wages were still commonly paid in 
public-houses, and the prevalent custom of paying 
1 drink-footings ' on admission to a trade was the 
cause of much intemperance among working-men. 
With regard to adulteration, which had been ex- 
ceedingly bad from remote times down to the earlier 
part of last century, it is worth noticing that the 
inquiry of 1854 succeeded in eliciting very little posi- 
tive evidence of the use of the deleterious drugs 
previously in vogue. According to the results of 
chemical analysis, water, sugar, and salt were the 
means of adulteration generally used in the retail 
trade. Many of the abuses of the traffic, such as 
drunkenness, disorder, and gambling on the premises, 
were permitted to continue merely because the 
police had no power of entry at that time. It was, 
therefore, all the more creditable to the trade that 
the better class of publican should have earned a 



THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 47 

good name for the respectable conduct of their busi- 
ness. On the whole, it is clear that the evils of 
intemperance had diminished, both in volume and 
intensity, and that a better tone prevailed generally. 

The inquiry held twenty-two years later is par- 
ticularly interesting, because it came immediately 
after a marked relapse, which was probably one of 
the reasons why it was held. The occurrence of the 
relapse is proved by a rise in the police returns, and 
a simultaneous increase in the consumption of 
liquor. The correspondence between the two adds 
to their value as evidence. Its cause was the great 
improvment in trade which set in about 1868, and 
lasted in its effects on the country generally down to 
1875 or 1876. The police returns for London show 
that the arrests for drunkenness in the metropolis in 
proportion to population rose gradually from 4.9 per 
1,000 in 1867 to 7.6 in 1876. In England and Wales 
the actual numbers were 100,067 in 1867 and 205,567 
in 1876, and there is no doubt that the whole 
country was similarly affected. Between 1867 and 
1875 the consumption of liquor in the United King- 
dom rose, in beer, from 28.1 to 34 gallons, and in 
spirits and wine from 1.41 to 1.82 gallon per head. 
The excessive consumption, it is to be observed, con- 
tinued after the height of the prosperity had passed, 
and the excess of drunkenness lasted somewhat longer 
than the excessive consumption — the effect of a 
habit established. But the remarkable thing is the 
comparatively slight effect which this debauch 
produced, and the rapidity with which it passed 



48 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



away, proving, as it seems to me, more clearly than 
if it had never taken place, the deep-seated change 
which had come over the country. The people 
denied themselves nothing and drank as much as 
they wished in 1873, 1874, and 1875, but the 
police record in London, which is a very reliable 
rough barometer, indicated a maximum of only 7.6 
per 1,000, whereas in 1836 it had been up to 13.6, 
and in 1850 — another relapse — it had reached 9.4. 
After 1876 the consumption fell off with extreme 
rapidity, and in ten years reached a general low 
level— that is, comparatively low — which was fairly 
maintained, with minor fluctuations, for another 
decade. The police returns followed the same course 
with a degree of general correspondence that is most 
striking; but I deal more fully with the statistics 
later on, and only refer to them here incidentally 
to show the comparatively slight and transient effect 
of the demoralisation that occurred in the prosperous 
seventies. I think it indicates an improved tone, 
and that conclusion is confirmed by much of the 
evidence given before the Committee in 1876. Al- 
though it was admitted that intemperance had 
increased since 1868, competent witnesses bore 
testimony to the great improvement in public order 
and the conduct of the liquor traffic in most of the 
large towns, including Liverpool, Manchester, Bir- 
mingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Bristol, Preston, and 
Cardiff. A large number of the worst class of beer- 
houses had been abolished. Between 1870 and 1876 
they were reduced by nearly 6,000, while the 



THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 49 

population increased by one and a half millions. 
The effect was everywhere recognised, and also ' the 
improved character of licensed houses generally.' 
Superintendent Turner said of the East-end of Lon- 
don: ' The majority of publicans, I honestly believe, 
do their best to prevent drunkenness and preserve 
order. . . . The conduct of the majority of the pub- 
licans is good.' Sir J. Mantell, stipendiary magis- 
trate of Salford and Manchester, stated that the 
public-houses were ' well conducted on the whole, 
and very much improved.' The Committee endorsed 
these and similar statements, and further reported 
that, ' as a rule, the higher class of artisans are be- 
coming more sober, and the apprehensions for drunk- 
enness are becoming more and more confined to the 
lowest grades of the community.' Of course there 
was a good deal to be said on the other side, and I 
am not analysing the report, but only quoting it as 
evidence that distinct advance had been made even 
at an adverse period. 

Passing on to the Royal Commission of 1896-99, 
we find a very striking consensus of testimony from 
all parts of the country that drunkenness has de- 
creased of late years, and an equally striking absence 
of evidence to the contrary. As the facts on this 
point are not summarised in any part of the Report, 
it is worth while to set out in brief the statements 
of the more important witnesses. 

London. — Sir John Bridge, the senior metropolitan 
magistrate, and a gentleman of unique experience, 
stated that there was ' clearly a decrease of drunk- 



50 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

enness ' among both men and women, but that the 
decrease was less among women. He was corrobo- 
rated by two superintendents, one representing an 
eastern and the other a southern division. The only 
evidence to the contrary was that of the superintend- 
ent of the notorious Piccadilly district, who reported 
1 a slight increase, ' which he attributed to the preva- 
lence of low clubs in the Soho quarter. 

Liverpool. — The Chief Constable stated that there 
was ' a very great decrease of drunkenness ' and 
' very material improvement in the conduct of the 
licensed houses,' with which there was ' very little 
fault to be found.' He was corroborated by one of 
the justices, who said that ' the conduct of the houses 
and the appearance of the streets had very much 
improved.' * A vast improvement — public-houses not 
now, as they were, centres of riot and dissipation ' 
(Chairman at meeting of Liverpool Ladies' Temper- 
ance Association). 

Manchester. — The Chief Constable stated that 
c drunkenness had greatly diminished during the last 
twenty years ' and that ' the licensed houses were 
well conducted as a whole.' He was corroborated 
by a temperance witness, who thought that ' drunk- 
enness was steadily decreasing as a whole,' and that 
' a general improvement had taken place in recent 
years. ' 

Birmingham. — ' A decrease of drunkenness ' 
(Clerk to the Justices, confirmed by Mr. Lawson 
Tait, F.R.C.S.). 

Leeds. — ' A very great and marked improvement 



THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 51 

in the sobriety and good order of the people 
generally ' (Clerk to the Justices). ' The licensed 
houses most undoubtedly well conducted ' (Chief 
Constable) . 

Bradford. — ' Drunkenness certainly decreased in 
proportion to population; increase in the good con- 
duct of the houses, which were generally well con- 
ducted ' (Clerk to the Justices). 

Nottingham. — ' Tone of the town very much im- 
proved ' (Town Clerk). 

Hull. — ' A great improvement since 1890 ; the 
houses very well conducted in the suburbs and fairly 
well conducted in the centre of the town; decrease 
of drunkenness ' (Clerk to the Justices). 

Bristol. — ■ Houses well conducted; gradual im- 
provement taking place ; great reduction in the num- 
ber of cases of drunkenness during last twenty years ' 
(Clerk to the Justices). 

Newcastle. — ' Generally speaking, drunkenness de- 
creasing ' (Clerk to the Justices). ' Very consider- 
able improvement among sailors ' (Chaplain to Sea- 
men's Mission). 

Plymouth. — ' Houses generally well conducted; 
drunkenness decreasing: holders of licenses very 
anxious to carry out the suggestions of the authori- 
ties ' (Chief Constable). 

Chester. — ' Houses well conducted and cases of 
drunkenness diminished ' (Chief Constable). 

York. — ' On the whole a satisfactory decrease of 
drunkenness; the vast majority of the houses well 
conducted ' (Chief Constable). 



52 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

Lincoln. — ' Habits of the people improved — more 
temperate and more thrifty ? (a Justice). 

Penzance. — ' A decrease of drunkenness ' (ex- 
Chairman of Watch Committee). 

Lancashire. — ' Drunkenness certainly diminished ' 
(Chief Constable). 

Staffordshire. — ' Less drunkenness than there 
used to be ; statistics show marked diminution ; houses 
very fairly conducted; better than they were ' (Chief 
Constable). 

Gloucestershire. — l A very marked improvement 
in drunkenness' (Clerk to the Cirencester Jus- 
tices). 

Somersetshire. — c I can remember when it was 
unsafe in my county for ladies to walk about because 
of some drunken man being about in the roads. It 
was quite unsafe in the country, particularly in the 
cider country. Now that has so decreased that you 
never see a drunken person about. I do not know 
that I have seen one for years ' (Justice and Deputy 
Lieutenant) . 

That was pretty nearly all the evidence given on 
the point with regard to England. It must not be 
supposed that the witnesses quoted were of an 
ex parte character or satisfied with the existing state 
of things. On the contrary nearly all of them were 
anxious to point out numerous defects and to urge 
reforms. Some were engaged in temperance work 
and ardent advocates of drastic legislation. Their 
testimony to the improvement that has taken place 
is, therefore, unimpeachable. And there is hardly 



THE DECLINE OP DRUNKENNESS 53 

anything to place against it. Two or three witnesses 
thought matters were stationary, and the clerk to 
the West Bromwich justices expressed the opinion 
that drunkenness was increasing, but he admitted that 
numerically it was not and that the traffic was well 
conducted. The total absence of ' shocking revela- 
tions ' is most striking, and the admissions made by 
the stoutest champions of teetotalism and prohibition 
clinch the matter. Dr. Norman Kerr said: ' I 
think that in very many respects intemperance has 
greatly decreased, but in certain details and in 
certain classes it has increased.' He explained this 
to mean that drunkenness ' that is visible in the 
streets ' and among men generally had decreased, but 
that female intemperance had increased. I deal with 
this latter opinion, which was held by other witnesses, 
in a separate chapter. Even Mr. Whyte, the secre- 
tary of the United Kingdom Alliance, was constrained 
to admit that * open riotous drunkenness was less 
common than it used to be/ but he thought that 
' quiet soaking drinking was much more common.' 
I think he is quite right. Drinking has become 
much more quiet — that is to say, there is more mod- 
erate and less excessive drinking. In other words, 
people continue to drink — the word • soaking ' merely 
expresses Mr. Whyte 's disapproval of the practice — 
but they do not get drunk so often, which is precisely 
the point. 

The evidence with regard to Scotland, which is a 
much more drunken country than England, is to much 
the same effect, though less consistently favourable. 



54 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

Glasgow. — ■ Drunkenness decreased considerably 
in the last forty years. The figures fluctuate greatly, 
principally according to trade, but society now looks 
upon drunkenness as a disgrace, and that has a great 
influence on the people, I believe more than anything 
I know ' (Chief Constable). 

Dundee. — ' Drunkenness decreased steadily from 
1844 down to the present time ; nearly one-half less ' 
(Chief Constable and Procurator Fiscal). 

Greenock. — ' A great diminution of drunken- 
ness; very bad yet, undoubtedly, but nothing to 
what it was when I went to Greenock ' (Chief 
Constable). 

Edinburgh. — l No doubt whatever public-houses 
have very materially improved in character both in 
Edinburgh and Leith during the last twenty-five 
years; very distinct and decided improvement both 
in respect of a decrease of drunkenness and a limita- 
tion in the number of crimes ' (Solicitor to the 
Supreme Court and J.P. for Midlothian). l A de- 
cided improvement during the last thirty or forty 
years ' (Bailie and Chairman of Public Health Com- 
mittee). 

Renfrewshire. — ' Considerable improvement ' 
(Chief Constable). 

Roxburghshire and Berwickshire. — ' Habits of 
the people in respect to sobriety greatly improved J 
(Chief Constable). 

Aberdeenshire. — ' Drunkenness on the whole de- 
creased ' (Chief Constable). 

An exception to this generally favourable experi- 



THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 55 

ence is furnished by the town of Aberdeen, in which 
drunkenness was stated by the Chief Constable to 
be l not on the decrease but rather the reverse.' A 
former Dean of Guild for Aberdeen, who had been 
in the grocery and wine trade for fifty-seven years, 
corroborated that opinion. The worst feature de- 
scribed was an increase of juvenile intemperance. 
The Chief Constable of Dumbartonshire thought 
drinking was stationary among both men and women 
in that county, but had improved at Clydebank, one 
of the most typical industrial townships. A bailie of 
Edinburgh, who is also a temperance lecturer and 
advocate of prohibition, spoke of an increase of drunk- 
enness among boys and girls under twenty years of 
age, and habitual drunkards are undoubtedly very 
numerous in Scotland ; but on the whole the evidence 
went to show that there had been distinct and gen- 
eral improvement. This was recognised by Colonel 
McHardy, Chairman of the Prison Commissioners of 
Scotland, who said that there had ' no doubt been 
a general advance in public opinion on the questions 
of temperance and street order.' 

The evidence from Ireland points rather to a sta- 
tionary condition of things, though several witnesses 
spoke of an improvement in the larger towns. Sir 
A. Keid, Inspector General of the Royal Irish Con- 
stabulary, said that since he last gave evidence in 
1888 he considered that ' little alteration had taken 
place in regard to the state of drunkenness in 
Ireland.' It ' had not seriously increased,' though 



56 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

there was ' room for improvement/ which no one 
will dispute. 

Dublin. — ' Materially improving in the matter of 
temperance ' (Mr. T. C. Harrington, M.P. for Dub- 
lin). l A recent recrudescence of drunkenness 9 (Mr. 
Swifte, police-magistrate). 

Belfast. — ' Drunkenness slightly decreasing ' 
( Chief District Inspector of Constabulary) . 

Londonderry. — l A uniform decrease of Sunday 
drunkenness since the Sunday Closing Act : week-day 
drunkenness decreased 25 per cent, in first five years 
after the Act, but slightly increased in 1895-96-97 ' 
(County Inspector of Constabulary). 

Waterford. — ' Less visible drunkenness than there 
was twenty-five years ago; drunkenness really de- 
creased ' (Rev. T. F. Furlong, C.C.). 

Kilkenny. — ' Practically no change at all in the 
last few years in county and city; if any it would 
be in a decrease of drunkenness ' (Resident Magis- 
trate). ' Condition improving; a decrease of drunk- 
enness ' (County Coroner). 

Cork. — ' Generally speaking, a diminution of 
drunkenness ' (Secretary of Licensed Vintners' As- 
sociation) . 

On the whole the Irish evidence does not contra- 
dict the general story of improvement, if it adds little 
to it. 

Now I submit that, taken all together, the fore- 
going expressions of opinion, coming as they do from 
every large centre of population in the kingdom, and 
for the most part from disinterested or even unwilling 



THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 57 

witnesses, and being traversed by no testimony to 
the opposite effect, constitute a most remarkable 
body of evidence. They show that the improvement 
noted by previous inquiries has been maintained up 
to the present time, and that we are most certainly 
not going from bad to worse in this matter. A 
comparison between the facts and opinions revealed 
in 1834 and those elicited in 1896 makes such an 
hypothesis quite impossible. 

Let us now turn to the statistical evidence, and 
see what light it throws upon the question. There 
are three points on which statistics are available: 
(1) the number of drunken persons dealt with by the 
police; (2) the number of licensed premises; (3) the 
consumption of drink. 

STATISTICS OF DRUNKENNESS 

On this head it is necessary to say a word. Police 
statistics are open to certain objections, of which 
advantage is always taken by ardent controversialists, 
who use them when they support, and decry them 
when they refute, a pet theory. We are told that 
police statistics do not represent the real amount of 
drunkenness. Of course they do not; that has been 
recognised ever since there have been police statis- 
tics. But they represent the amount of drunkenness 
of a certain degree, the degree of noise, disorder, or 
helplessness, which bears a fairly constant relation 
to the whole. They are therefore good for purposes 
of broad comparison, if allowance be made for 



58 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

differences in the law or in classification which affect 
the number of legal offences. 

But, it is said, they vary indefinitely according 
to the local procedure and zeal of the police. The 
time-honoured dictum is quoted that a single c turn 
of the screw ' may increase the numbers tenfold. I 
agree that it may increase them considerably, though 
not tenfold. But as a matter of fact that turn is 
seldom given, and if given is not maintained. I 
have made long and extensive observations on this 
point from the life, and have come to the conclusion 
that in practice the police act everywhere in just 
about the same way, except, perhaps, in Russia, 
where extraordinary license to noisy and intoxicated 
persons is allowed. They act, that is to say, as com- 
mon sense dictates. Drunken people who can get 
away home quietly without giving trouble are ignored, 
or merely watched ; those who are disorderly or cause 
an obstruction by their helplessness are taken in 
charge. In short, the police look to disorder, which 
is their business. If there is any attempt to go 
beyond that and set up some higher criterion, it 
never lasts, because it is not a policeman's business 
to promote virtue; the higher procedure is quietly 
dropped. On the other hand, if laxity below the 
ordinary standard prevails, the public soon complains, 
and things are tightened up. Under the same law 
we should all do very much as the police do, after a 
short time, if we were in their place. Broadly 
speaking, therefore, the police returns are quite 
valid for purposes of comparison, when and where 



THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 59 

the strength of the force in proportion to population 
is fairly equal ; but of course they must be used with 
common sense, and cannot be applied to minute 
comparisons. It is, however, unnecessary to labour 
the point. The objection is little more than a trick 
of controversy, which has done duty so long as to 
be somewhat threadbare. 

There are no police statistics for the whole king- 
dom, and those for England and Wales, which are 
the most complete, do not begin until 1857. The 
only records that cover the whole period under review 
are those of the Metropolitan Police, which are the 
more valuable because we have precise information 
with regard to the strength of the force and their 
procedure. The proportion of police to the popu- 
lation was in 1834 almost identical with that of 
recent years — I believe that at the present moment 
it has not quite kept pace — and the procedure, de- 
scribed in detail by more than one officer before 
the Committee, was quite identical, except in so far 
as the legislation of 1872 increased the number of 
offences. They took into custody the disorderly and 
the dead drunk, leaving the partially drunk alone, or 
even assisting them home. Moreover, the metropoli- 
tan record is a good barometer, because the London 
drunkenness is the mean of that for England and 
Wales (see Chapter VI.). 

The following table is taken from the annual re- 
ports of the Commissioner of Police. After 1892 a 
somewhat different classification of offences was 
adopted in the returns, which spoils them for purposes 



60 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



Metropolitan Area 



Number of persons apprehended for 

duet in proportion to 

v« a r Proportion 

xear per 1,000 

1834 12.305 

1835 13.328 

1836 13.692 

1837 12.672 

1838 12.357 

1839 12.178 

1840 7.919 

1841 7.088 

1842 5.708 

1843 4.936 

1844 7.319 

1845 7.559 

1846 7.994 

1847 7.076 

1848 6.776 

1849 8.500 

1850 9.459 

1851 9.041 

1852 9.028 

1853 8.845 

1854 8.088 

1855 6.928 

1856 6.584 

1857 6.921 

1858 7.056 

1859 6.243 

1860 5.941 

1861 5.469 

1862 5.769 

1863 5.465 



drunk and disorderly con- 
population 

Vpor Proportion 

Year per 1,000 

1864 5.716 

1865 5.764 

1866 5.412 

1867 4.907 

1868 5.597 

1869 5.722 

1870 5.975 

1871 6.358 

1872 7.502 

1873 7.535 

1874 6.509 

1875 7.578 

1876 7.676 

1877 7.274 

1878 7.809 

1879 7.345 

1880 6.345 

1881 5.698 

1882 5.269 

1883 5.264 

1884 4.883 

1885 4.295 

1886 4.589 

1887 3.772 

1888 4.228 

1889 4.794 

1890 5.374 

1891 5.350 

1892 5.276 



of comparison with the earlier years. The table con- 
tains the liquor question in a nutshell to any one 
who can interpret the fluctuations. They show the 
influences that govern the prevalence of drunken- 
ness, the part played by legislation and its limits. I 



THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 61 

cannot here go into all the lessons to be learnt from 
it ; but will point out those bearing on the immediate 
question. 

In the first place the reader will notice an im- 
mense drop between the period 1834-39 and the fol- 
lowing decade. This was due to three causes — (1) 
the Metropolitan Police Act of 1839; (2) Father 
Mathew's temperance crusade, which culminated in 
1843, the high-water mark of teetotalism; (3) the 
state of trade and prevailing distress. The duty on 
spirits was also increased, which affected consump- 
tion. I refer again to these points in subsequent 
chapters. The Act of 1839, which closed public- 
houses on Saturday night and Sunday morning, did 
more to diminish public drunkenness than any single 
measure before or since. Its immediate effect is 
shown by the drop from 12.178 to 7.919 in the pro- 
portional police figures. I wish to draw particular 
attention to this Act and its effect because it is not 
so much as mentioned in the summaries of liquor 
legislation published by the Peel Commission. An- 
other point, to which I shall refer again, is the fact 
that during the great decrease in public drunkenness 
a large increase of beer-shops was taking place. 

Passing on, the reader will notice that public drunk- 
enness has never again been nearly so high since 
1839 as it was before. It has fluctuated mainly under 
the influence of good and bad trade, and the low- 
water mark was reached in 1887, a year of great 
distress, but the general tendency has been to keep 
at a comparatively low level and not to rise so high 
in prosperous times. This is markedly shown in 



62 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

the unprecedentedly prosperous years following 1871, 
as already pointed out. The real meaning of this 
fact is that the practice of getting intoxicated is be- 
coming confined to a smaller and smaller section of 
the community, and that the standard of conduct 
which stops short of it is accepted more and more 
widely and lower down in the social scale. 

The following table, drawn up from the Chief Con- 
stable's returns, gives the proportional drunkenness 
of Liverpool in the last thirty years. It is less valu- 
able than the London one for the present purpose 
because it covers a shorter period and the procedure 
has been less consistent. 



Year 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 
1880 



Liverpool 




persons drunk token apprehended in 
population 


proportion U 


Proportion 
per 1,000 

30 


Year 

1881 


Proportion 
per 1,000 
25 


29 


1882 


29 


35 


1883 


31 


42 


1884 


31 


46 


1885 


29 


45 


1886 


24 


37 


1887 


30 


38 


1888 


30 


43 


1889 


31 


45 


1890 


28 


42 


1891 


21 


32 


1892 


19 


31 


1893 


17 


25 


1894 


12 


26 


1895 


9 



In comparing this table with the figures for Lon- 
don it must be remembered that the classification 



THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 



63 



is different, which accounts to some extent for the 
difference in the relative drunkenness. ' Drunk when 
apprehended ' is not quite the same thing as ' appre- 
hended for drunk and disorderly conduct.' Still 
Liverpool is a more drunken city ; it contains a much 
smaller proportion of the well-to-do classes. The 
principal point is the very striking fall since 1889 ; it 
is due mainly to the introduction of a new method 
of supervising public-houses and is therefore highly 
instructive. For the rest we see here the same im- 
provement since the period of prosperity, which was 
felt somewhat earlier in Liverpool. 

From Glasgow we have the following police returns 
for forty years: 



Persons apprehended for Drunkenness 



Year 


Proportion 
per 1.000 


Year 


1S57 .... 


37 


1877 


1858 .... 


51 


1878 


1859 


...... — 


1879 


1860 .... 


60 


1880 


1861 .... 


55 


1881 


1862 .... 


. 52 


1882 


1863 .... 


56 


1883 


1864 .... 


54 


1884 


1865 .... 


55 


1885 


1866 .... 


52 


1886 


1867 .... 


48 


1887 


1868 .... 


47 


1888 


1869 .... 


— 


1889 


1870 .... 


56 


1890 


1871 .... 


58 


1891 


1872 .... 


65 


1892 


1873 .... 


71 


1893 


1874 


62 


1894 


1875 .... 


32 


1895 


1876 .... 


28 


18U6 



Proportion 
per 1,000 
...29 
...28 
...21 
...26 
...28 
...28 
...27 
...23 
...19 
. .. 20 
...23 
...27 
...30 
...37 
...30 
...28 
...25 
...26 
...27 
...28 



64 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

Glasgow is obviously a much more drunken city 
than either Liverpool or London, but the same 
fluctuations and the same general improvement are 
shown. There is the high-water mark at the time 
of good trade and a low-water mark in the bad 
period, though both fell a year or two earlier in 
Glasgow. But the second twenty years show a 
marked and general improvement over the first 
twenty. 

It would be easy to multiply these police statistics 
indefinitely. London, Liverpool, and Glasgow have 
been given, not as particularly favourable specimens, 
but merely as the largest towns. Others show 
virtually the same result, and it must be remembered 
that the fall in the police returns cannot be explained 
by greater laxity of procedure; for by the general 
consent of all witnesses — official, temperance, and 
independent — before the Eoyal Commission the police 
procedure has rather increased in stringency. No one 
has ventured to allege the contrary. 

The following table, showing the drunkenness for 
the whole of England and Wales during the last 
twenty-five years in quinquennial periods, is taken 
from the Judicial Statistics: 



Number of persons proceeded against for drunkenness in Eng- 
land and Wales per 100,000 of population 

1874-78 812.48 

1879-83 697.50 

1884-88 636.40 

1889-93 614.95 

1894-98 605.93 



THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 



65 



The story is plain, though the improvement has 
not been so continuous as it appears here. Latterly 
the figures have risen again, reaching 674.64 in 1899. 
Moreover the table begins in a peculiarly drunken 
period. Previous to 1874 the returns had been 
going up for several years: 

1857-61 428.50 

1862-66 478.26 

1867-71 547.48 

1872 656.62 

1873 785.15 



This, again, must be read with a double qualifi- 
cation. It begins in a period of low consumption, 
which rose with improving trade. At the same time 
the country constabulary, only established in 1857, 
were increasing in numbers and efficiency and were 
particularly stimulated by the Act of 1872, which had 
a marked effect in swelling the returns for the country 
as a whole, though it caused little change in London 
and other already well-policed towns. The Act must 
be borne in mind when any period anterior to 1872 
is compared with one posterior to it. 

We may conclude this section of statistics with 
some figures for Ireland. 



Number of 
Year persons drunk and 

drunk and disorderly 

1885 87,133 

1886 79,828 

1887 79,476 

1888 87,572 

1889 92,137 

1890 100,202 



Number of 
Year persons drunk and 

drunk and disorderly 

1891 100,528 

1892 93,197 

1893 89,565 

1894 88,215 

1895 85,361 



66 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

During this period the population has somewhat 
decreased. In 1891 it was 4,706,162, and the 
proportional drunkenness, therefore, was 2138.89 per 
100,000. 

NUMBER OF LICENSED HOUSES 

I pass on to the number of licensed houses in pro- 
portion to the population. I do not attach quite 
so much importance to this factor as some do, for 
there have been periods when a great increase of 
licenses has coincided with a great diminution of 
drunkenness and of the consumption of drink, and 
when exactly the opposite has occurred. Thus in 
the year 1833 there were in England and Wales 
88,000 public-houses in round numbers ; in 1837 they 
had increased to 96,000, but the consumption of 
spirits had decreased by a million gallons (the amount 
of beer is not available), and the London ' drunks ' 
had fallen from 19 to 12J per 1,000. Again in 1869 
there were 118,000 public-houses; in 1876 they had 
diminished to 108,000, but the consumption of beer 
had increased from 29.1 gallons to 33.7 gallons per 
head, and that of spirits and wine from 1.45 gallon 
to 1.80 gallon, while the London ' drunks ' had risen 
from 20,391 to 32,325. Increase in the number^ of 
public-houses, therefore, does not always mean a 
worse state of things, nor can their decrease be 
relied on as a test of improvement. Still I think that, 
cceteris paribus, the number is a factor of impor- 
tance, and, taken broadly, I consider diminution a 
sign of improvement. 



THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 



67 



The diminution during the period I have taken 
has been very great, and it is going on steadily. 

Total number of licenses in proportion to population 



— 


1831 


1891 


Decrease 


England and Wales 
United Kingdom . 


1 to 90 persons 
1 to 102 persons 


1 to 187 persons 
1 to 196 persons 


107 per cent. 
92 per cent. 


Public-houses and beer-houses in proportion to population 


— 


1831 


1891 


Decrease 


England and Wales 
United Kingdom 


1 to 168 persons 
1 to 200 persons 


1 to 300 persons 
1 to 304 persons 


79 per cent. 
50 per cent. 



Since 1891 a further considerable decrease has taken 
place. The census figures corroborate these tables. 
In 1831 the number of males over twenty years of 
age in England and Wales returned under the head- 
ings of l publican, hotel or inn keeper, retailer of 
beer ' and ' spirit shops, ' and including both employ- 
ers and employed, was 57,664 in a total population 
of 13,897,187. In 1891 the numbers were respectively 
66,678 and 29,001,018. To put them in a tabular 
form: 



— 


Population 


Persons engaged in 
retailing - liquor 


Proportion 
per 10,000 


1831 

1891 


13,897,167 
29,001,018 


57,664 
66,678 


41 
23 



This is perhaps a better basis of comparison than 
the number of licensed premises, because premises 
vary so much in size. 



68 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

The reduction in numbers has not been going on 
continuously during the whole time. On the con- 
trary, in England and Wales it only dates from 1869. 
Up to that year there was a steady increase of public- 
houses and beer-houses. Then a reduction of beer- 
houses began, followed, a few years later, by a similar 
fall in fully licensed houses, and this movement has 
continued steadily year by year up to the present 
time. In 1869 the total number of fully licensed 
houses and beer-houses for on-consumption was 
118,602; in 1896 it was 97,014. That is to say, a 
reduction of 21,588 occurred, while the population 
increased by about 9,000,000. This remarkable change 
was the result of the legislation of 1869, 1872, and 
1874. I consider it a distinct sign of progress; and 
it is difficult to see how in the face of these facts 
it can be maintained that the law has completely 
failed, and the liquor trade is increasing its hold on 
the people. 

In Scotland there has been a steady and almost 
continuous fall since 1829. In that year the number 
of public-houses selling spirits was 17,371; in 1896 
it was 7,146, and meanwhile the population had in- 
creased from about 2,300,000 to 4,200,000. That is 
to say, the public-houses had diminished by 58 per 
cent, and the population nearly doubled. 

The case of Ireland is very different. The popu- 
lation has been falling since the census of 1841, when 
it stood at 8,175,124. Roughly speaking, it has been 
reduced by one-half, but the public-houses have in- 
creased rather than diminished. The date, however, 



THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 69 

is hardly fair, because it fell at the time of Father 
Mathew's campaign and a period of great distress, 
when thousands of licenses were given up for lack 
of custom. Public-houses dropped from 21,326 in the 
year 1838 to 14,162 in 1841. To take the latter as 
a starting point, therefore, would be fallacious. None 
the less, it remains true that licenses have been 
gradually increasing for many years to a falling 
population. One explanation, given to me privately 
but from a serious source, is that the Eoman Catholic 
clergy are secretly opposed to the reduction of licenses, 
because the Church profits largely by bequests from 
publicans, who buy their peace with Heaven in this 
way. 

It is worth noting in passing that whereas Scot- 
land and Ireland differ as widely as possible in 
regard to the number of public-houses in proportion 
to population — the one showing a progressive de- 
crease, the other an increase — they are both alike in 
having more than three times the amount of police 
drunkenness that there is in England, which comes 
between them in respect to public-houses. The fact 
is curious and susceptible of various explanations. 
One, no doubt, will be that police statistics are worth- 
less; but I have already discussed that. Having 
taken observations of drunkenness in the three 
countries, I should say that the police figures 
represent the relative amount with substantial 
accuracy. My own explanation would be the 
climate and the practice of drinking spirits in 
Scotland and Ireland. These points are further 



70 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

discussed in Chapter VI. on the Forces of Intem- 
perance. 



THE CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL 

Statistics of consumption are valuable evidence, 
but they lend themselves to error even more readily 
than police returns. In comparing one country 
with another they are totally misleading unless the 
mode of drinking is taken into consideration; and 
in comparing different periods in the same country 
they are equally misleading unless they are given 
consecutively and allowance made for abnormal 
circumstances. For instance, I have often seen 
comparisons between past and recent years, greatly 
to the disadvantage of the latter, but on examination 
it is found that the selected year or period in the 
past is one of abnormally low consumption, and the 
other, with which it is contrasted, above the average. 
Thus 1840 and the years immediately succeeding are 
often selected for comparison ; but, as I have already 
pointed out, these were most abnormal years. How 
abnormal may be judged from the fact that whereas 
the average consumption of spirits in the United 
Kingdom during the five years 1834-39 was 30 
million gallons, it dropped in 1840 to 25J millions, 
then to 24 and 22 millions; but in 1849 it was up 
again to 28 millions, whence it rose year by year to 
3.1 millions in 1854. I have previously mentioned 
the accidental combination of conditions which made 
the 1840 period so abnormal. If we take it as a 



THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 



71 



starting-point of comparison we shall merely deceive 
ourselves. 

Another source of error is to reduce the various 
drinks to a common denominator expressed either 
as alcohol or as money. It is valid for comparing 
recent years with each other, but not for comparing 
the past with the present; because the amount of 
alcohol contained in beer and wine, and the pur- 
chasing power of money, have both undergone great 
change. Further, if we go back fifty or sixty years, 
the quantity of beer has to be assumed, as no official 
returns are available. 

It is best, therefore, to take the recorded consump- 
tion under each head, and to begin with the year 
1831, which was not of an exceptional character ; the 
consumption having, indeed, been considerably higher 
in the preceding years. 

Average annual consumption per head in United Kingdom 



Years 


Spirits 


Wine 


Beer 


1831-40 


1.113 gal. 


.260 gal. 


— 


1841-50 


0.945 gal. 


.231 gal. 


— 


1851-60 


1.018 gal. 


.233 gal. 


— 


1861-70 


0.941 gal. 


.420 gal. 


27.53 gals. 


1871-80 


1.173 gal. 


.512 gal. 


31.55 gals. 


1881-90 


0.990 gal. 


.388 gal. 


27.77 gals. 



There is no continuous record of beer until 1856; 
between that and 1860 the average was 23.5 gals. 

This table shows neither a definite increase nor a 
decrease, but an alternation, with rather a tendency 
to increase latterly; but it must be remembered 



72 DKINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

that the returns in later years give the consumption 
much more completely than in the earlier part of the 
period. There was a great deal of beer brewed 
privately then, and still more illicit distillation and 
importation of spirits, whereas smuggling has now 
practically ceased, and what little beer is brewed 
privately is included in the returns. The Inland 
Eevenue report for 1884 states that ' in the year 
1820 more than half the spirits actually consumed 
were supplied by the smuggler.' This disturbing 
element in the statistics was only eliminated by de- 
grees. Many years later there were still 10,000 prose- 
cutions in a year for illicit stills, and it was not until 
1855 that smuggling was fairly suppressed. More- 
over, it must be remembered that modern beer is of 
much less alcoholic strength, while the light wines 
have displaced the heavy ones. The mean annual con- 
sumption per head for the whole period of sixty 
years is: 

Spirits Wines Beer 

1.030 gal. ,.340 gal. (30 years) 28 gals. 

In the first half of the period the mean consump- 
tion of spirits per head was 1.025 gal., in the second 
half 1.034 gal., showing only a trifling fractional 
difference. Taken over a long period the consump- 
tion remains remarkably equable. The periodical 
fluctuations are caused by several agencies. The 
most important is the state of trade, which is re- 
flected with great fidelity in the returns. "When the 
people have more money they buy more drink. 



THE DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS 



73 



The same influence is seen operating conversely in 
the varying price of drink, as affected by the duties. 
I deal with these points more fully later on. 

Since 1890 the annual consumption in gallons has 
been as follows: 



Year 


Spirits 


Wine 


Beer 


1891 


1.034 


.390 


30.1 


1892 


1.034 


.381 


29.7 


1893 


0.980 


.366 


29.5 


1894 


0.966 


.355 


29.4 


1895 


1.000 


.370 


29.6 


1896 


1.020 


.400 


30.8 


1897 


1.030 


.400 


31.4 


1898 


1.040 


.410 


31.9 


1899 


1.085 


.410 


32.7 


Mean of 9 years 


1.021 


.380 


30.4 



Here, once more, the inevitable influence of good 
times is shown. Drink has gone up with wages, 
but it has not gone up nearly so high as it did during 
the last period of marked prosperity. It is interest- 
ing to compare the two periods of five years. 



Spirits 


Wine 


Beer 


1873-77 


1895-99 


1873-77 


1895-99 


1873-77 


1895-99 


1.22 


1.00 


.56 


.37 


33.5 


29.6 


1.26 


1.02 


.53 


.40 


34.0 


30.8 


1.29 


1.03 


.53 


.40 


33.3 


31.4 


1.27 


1.04 


.56 


.41 


33.7 


31.9 


1.22 


1.09 


.52 


.41 


32.3 


32.7 


Mean 1.25 


1.03 


.54 


.40 


33.3 


31.3 



Comparing the last nine years, 1891-99, with 
the previous sixty, we notice that the consumption 



74 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

of spirits has been a little below the mean, that of 
beer and wine distinctly above it, and especially 
beer. If this be taken in conjunction with the fact 
that light beers and wines have displaced heavy ones, 
it goes to show a tendency to prefer the less intoxi- 
cating liquors. 

The general upshot of this branch of statistics is 
to prove that the improvement in good order and 
drunkenness and the reduction of public-houses are 
not accompanied by a corresponding diminution in 
the quantity of liquor consumed. The people ex- 
hibit no tendency whatever to give up drink, but 
they take it in a more decent fashion, and in times 
of prosperity they do not give way to such excessive 
indulgence as in former days. At the same time 
they show a growing preference for the lighter and 
less deleterious kinds of liquor. In short, there is 
more moderate — or, as Mr. Whyte puts it, quiet soak- 
ing — drinking and less drunkenness. Perhaps one 
may interpret the situation as persistent use with less 
abuse. 

Note. — The foregoing statistical review ends with 1899. 
Since then the absence of a quarter of a million male adults in 
South Africa has introduced a disturbing element. Trade 
reached a maximum in 1900, when exports of British produce 
stood at 71. 2s. 4d. a head — nearly the highest on record. 
Nevertheless the consumption of beer fell off by a gallon a 
head, and the drunkenness figure fell with it from 674 to 636. 
The movement has since continued with declining trade. The 
high- water mark of the recent relapse, therefore, is 1899. Com- 
paring it with 1876, we find 20 per cent, less drunkenness. 



75 



CHAPTER IV 

FEMALE DRUNKENNESS 

I have referred in the last chapter to female 
drunkenness as a separate subject. Its alleged in- 
crease is the great exception to the general improve- 
ment which has been shown, and is almost universally 
admitted, to have taken place in the behaviour of 
the people. The question is of sufficient importance 
to deserve more careful examination than it has yet 
received so far as I know. 

At the outset a distinction must be drawn 
between the upper and the lower classes. Against 
the former I think the charge must be admitted. 
There is no absolute proof, perhaps, but a good deal 
of evidence, that ladies belonging to the upper and 
middle classes have shown an increasing tendency 
to inebriety of late years. I prefer the word ' inebri- 
ety/ because it implies habit, and covers the use of 
drugs. There is a strong opinion in the medical 
profession to that effect, and it is corroborated by 
general experience. Most people know or have 
heard of cases in their own rank of life, if not among 
their own immediate friends. Probably it is not a 
new thing. There were those ladies of quality who 



76 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



would ' take off cup for cup ' in the seventeenth 
century, and we know from Fielding that they had 
their successors in the eighteenth; but free indul- 
gence seems to have become decidedly more general 
among ladies in quite recent years. Within one's 
own recollection their habits and standard of be- 
haviour have noticeably changed, both in public and 
in private. The causes are obvious. One of them 
is the escape from conventional shackles, and the 
imitation of masculine ways. This movement was 
to regenerate man by feminine example and compe- 
tition. I am afraid the opposite result is more 
conspicuous up to the present. Women have shown 
an unforeseen facility for adopting masculine vices, 
without the saving grace of masculine self-respect. 
When they give way at all they are lost; and the 
temptation to which they are thus exposed by the 
removal of conventional safeguards is much greater 
than that which assails men, by reason of the 
physical weakness and emotional sensibility peculiar 
to their sex. They are generally led to take stimu- 
lants and other intoxicants by physical or mental 
suffering. Modern manners make it easy for them 
to continue the habit, and their comparative lack of 
self-control makes it difficult for them to resist. 
Hotel and restaurant life, the custom of lunching 
and dining out and alone, the general freedom of 
behaviour, the incessant pursuit of excitement, their 
newly won independence, and the command of 
money — all these things place women in a novel 
position, and provide them with fatal facilities for 



FEMALE DRUNKENNESS 77 

indulgence when once they have given way. So one 
sees them at the restaurant or in the confectioner's 
shop, drinking wines and liqueurs to an extent which 
indicates the existence of a morbid appetite. Then 
the enormous multiplication of narcotic and anodyne 
drugs, and the medical fashion — for it is nothing else 
— of ordering everybody to drink Scotch whisky, are 
modern innovations which tend to promote feminine 
inebriety. There is also evidence to show that women 
on the downward path are assisted by the facility 
with which they can obtain liquor surreptitiously 
from the grocer. In view of all these considerations 
it would be surprising if some increase in this form 
of self-indulgence had not taken place in the classes 
of life affected by the novel conditions mentioned. 
Its importance, however, may easily be exaggerated. 
There is no reason to suppose that the movement is 
very large or of a lasting character. Rather the good 
sense and right feeling of the educated womanhood 
of this country may be trusted to apply the required 
corrective when the danger is fully recognised. 

Turning now to the larger question of feminine 
intemperance among the mass of the people, we find 
a different state of things. The same reasons for 
an increase do not apply to the women of the lower 
classes, and we should naturally expect that they 
would share in some degree in the general improve- 
ment. That was, in fact, the opinion of some of 
the most experienced witnesses before the Eoyal 
Commission. For instance, Sir John Bridge 
thought that female drunkenness had diminished 



78 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

in London, though not to the same extent as male, 
and his experience was confirmed by that of the 
Chief Constable of Liverpool, the Chief Constable 
of York, and others. Some witnesses considered 
that matters were stationary in this respect, but a 
larger number expressed the belief that drunkenness 
was increasing among women. Many of these were 
members of temperance societies or engaged in 
temperance work, and no doubt they reflected the 
opinions current in their own circles. The recording 
of these opinions by the Commission without sub- 
mitting them to any sort of critical examination 
has in turn lent them an appearance of authority 
which has carried weight with the public. Some 
of the witnesses gave no reasons for their opinions. 
One well-known lady, to whose observations unac- 
countable deference was paid, was satisfied to remark 
1 I fancy it is indisputable.' Another referred to 
criminal statistics, but those she produced were 
of a singular character and quite irreconcilable 
with the official figures. Dr. Norman Kerr based 
his opinion on the fact that ' thirty years ago he 
hardly ever saw a woman in a public-house/ and 
on the death-rates from chronic alcoholism in the 
Kegistrar-General's returns. This is the only piece 
of positive evidence that has been produced. The 
point on which stress has been laid is that the death- 
rates from this cause have increased more rapidly 
among women than among men. 

Before dealing with the figures it is necessary 
to point out a defect in the mortality returns, 
which is a familiar commonplace to students of 






FEMALE DRUNKENNESS 



79 



epidemiology but a source of constant error to 
persons unaccustomed to handle vital statistics. 
The Kegistrar-GeneraPs mortality returns are based 
on the certificates of the causes of death sent in by 
medical men, and therefore do not represent hard 
and fast facts, but only opinions as to facts; and 
those opinions are subject to constant change. An 
1 alarming increase ' of some disease or other is often 
discovered on the strength of the Kegistrar-General's 
returns, when it may only mean that doctors have 
taken to inscribing that disease more frequently as 
a cause of death, either from improved knowledge 
or greater care or mere change of fashion. Then 
there is every year a considerable reserve of deaths 
the cause of which is uncertified or imperfectly cer- 
tified; and as registration improves, more cases are 
every year transferred from the class of ' ill-defined 
or not specified causes - to definite headings, and thus 
certain diseases, of which alcoholism is one, show an 
apparent increase, which is really due to more exact 
registration. Several causes, therefore, combine to 
qualify the significance of the annual mortality 
figures. Like other statistics they must be read with 
due regard to the conditions under which they are 
compiled. The figures in quinquennial periods are 
as follows: 

Death-rates from intemperance (chronic alcoholism and 
delirium tremens) per million living 



- 


1876-80 


1881-85 


1886-90 


1891-95 


1896-99 


Males 

Females. . . 


60 
24 


66 
31 


74 
40 


86 

50 


100 
60 



80 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

The table shows a large and progressive rise for 
both sexes, but much greater for females than for 
males, the respective rates of increase being 150 per 
cent, and 66 per cent. If, however, we examine the 
facts more closely, it becomes clear that the explana- 
tion lies in a change of registration. The figures 
are those for ' intemperance/ which is made up of 
' chronic alcoholism ' and ' delirium tremens.' With 
these ought to be classed • cirrhosis of the liver/ 
which is mainly caused by intemperance. If there 
were a real increase of mortality from this cause, 
there would be a rise under all these heads, not 
perhaps exactly corresponding, but approximately 
equal. Instead of that we find the death-rate from 
' delirium tremens ' nearly stationary and only a 
small rise in that from cirrhosis, equally shared by 
males and females. The great increase is in chronic 
alcoholism alone, and it is wildly out of proportion 
to the other two causes of death. Now both delirium 
tremens and cirrhosis of the liver are well-defined 
and well-understood conditions, whereas chronic 
alcoholism is a vague term embracing many condi- 
tions and interpreted in different senses by different 
practitioners. It is one of those modern expressions 
which have come into use as a matter of convenience 
or fashion, and its increased application to conditions 
which used to be otherwise described naturally takes 
effect in the death certificates. Moreover inebriety 
has of late years been more studied as a disease, it 
has been more talked about, and there is less re- 
luctance to state it as a cause of death, especially 



FEMALE DRUNKENNESS 81 

at coroners ' inquests, which furnish a large propor- 
tion — about one-third — of these deaths ascribed to 
alcohol. 

But, it may be said, this does not account for the 
enormous difference between the relative increase of 
the male and female figures. It accounts at once for 
a very large part of the difference, for if chronic 
alcoholism be taken alone it is found that the increase 
is 91 per cent, among males, and 125 per cent, 
among females. This comparatively small difference 
may be explained, perhaps, by the increase of 
inebriety among the upper and middle classes already 
discussed and by the superior consideration to women 
shown formerly in greater reluctance to state that 
cause of death in their case. 

But the truth is that these death-rate statistics 
will not bear a close examination. They are too 
imperfect and cover too short a period to permit any 
conclusion to be safely drawn. The vagueness of 
the heading ' Chronic Alcoholism ' leaves too much 
scope for error or accidental variation. This un- 
certainty shows itself in abrupt skips from year to 
year which cannot be accounted for. There was, 
for instance, absolutely no reason why the number 
of women dying from chronic alcoholism should 
jump from 269 in 1880 to 347 in the next year, or 
drop from 782 in 1893 down to 672 in 1894. Those 
who are accustomed to deal with death-rates recog- 
nise in such abrupt changes an element of accident 
which makes any deduction unsafe. The returns 



82 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

for the next two or three years may upset the whole 
calculation. 

Further, it is to be remembered that alcoholism 
is a chronic condition, which varies in duration from 
two or three years to forty or fifty. The returns 
may be swollen, therefore, by a number of old-stand- 
ing cases, which have succumbed at last, while the 
general volume of intemperance is greatly diminished. 
Finally, there is arsenical poisoning. This recently 
detected cause of death and the marked suscepti- 
bility of women may account for the whole thing. 

I turn to another branch of statistics — namely, 
the police returns. Their defects have been discussed 
in the last chapter, and I need not repeat what was 
then said except to remind the reader that such 
variation as has occurred in police procedure of 
recent years has by general consent been in the 
direction of increased stringency, and would there- 
fore tend to increase rather than diminish the 
number of apprehensions. I will take the same term 
of 25 years — 1874 to 1898 — as in the last chapter. 
It covers the period of alleged increase. Complete 
figures for England and Wales are available. 
There was a change in the arrangement of the 
Judicial Statistics in 1893, but it does not affect the 
continuity of the returns. The cases, previously 
placed all under one heading, have since been divided 
into two classes: (1) apprehended, (2) proceeded 
against by summons. The two added together give 
the total of cases ' proceeded against ' as in previous 
years. 



FEMALE DRUNKENNESS 



83 



Women proceeded against for drunkenness in England and Wales 

1874-1898 

Number of Proportion per 10,000 

Year women of population 

1874 42,760 18.0 

1875 47,521 19.7 

1876 49,025 20.0 

1877 47,567 19.0 

1878 47,985 19.0 

1879 44,240 17.4 

1880 44,910 17.5 

1881 42,650 16.3 

1882 44,624 16.9 

1883 44,264 16.6 

1884 45,958 17.0 

1885 41,231 15.1 

1886 37,971 13.8 

1887 38,099 13.7 

1888 38,544 13.7 

1889 41,726 14.6 

1890 44,433 15.4 

1891 43,496 14.6 

1892 40,886 13.9 

1893 42,090 14.2 

1894 42,594 14.2 

1895 40,896 13.6 

1896 43,964 14.5 

1897 46,185 15.0 

1898 48,915 15.7 

Arranged in quinquennial periods the proportional 

drunkenness comes out thus: 



1874-78 


1879-83 


1884-88 


1889-93 


1894-98 


19.1 


16.9 


14.6 


14.5 


14.6 



These figures correspond very closely with those 
given in the last chapter, both for consumption and 



84 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

drunkenness during the same period. There has 
been a general diminution of both since the seven- 
ties, but a rise since 1895 coincident with good 
trade. Female drunkenness has followed the same 
course, but the diminution has been somewhat less 
than among men. Sir John Bridge, therefore, and 
the other witnesses who expressed that opinion are 
fully confirmed. The accompanying chart represents 
the movement graphically from year to year. 

The mean for the whole period is a fraction under 
sixteen. The first eleven years are all above the 
mean; the last fourteen are all below it. The broad 
significance of these facts is unmistakable. I had 
no idea what the result would be when I began to 
work them out, and am in a measure surprised at it. 
The striking thing is the close general correspon- 
dence between these Judicial Statistics and the 
returns of consumption. There is the same high- 
water mark in 1875-76, the same low-water mark in 
1887-88, the same minor rise after 1888 and again 
after 1895. Thus the police figures are confirmed. 
To complete the tale, the curve rose in 1899 to 15.9, 
but was still below the mean, and sank to 15.0 in 
1900. It should read 15.7, not 15.0, in 1898. 

The general conclusion to be drawn is that 
female drunkenness among the people has not in- 
creased but very distinctly diminished during the 
last twenty-five years. The only ground for the 
opposite opinion disclosed is the comparatively small 
upward curve since 1895, which is fully accounted 
for by the state of trade. It is true that the period 



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86 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

taken begins with the drunken years 1874-76, which 
do not fairly represent the standard of female drink- 
ing in the past ; but I am dealing with the allegation 
of increased drunkenness in this very period, which 
was not chosen by me. The statistics I have given 
are those which have been appealed to in support of 
the charge. They have been appealed to but not 
produced before. I have merely supplied the defi- 
ciency. It is a pity that evidence should be confi- 
dently referred to and accepted without examination 
as proof of a statement, when in reality it proves 
exactly the opposite. 

The reasons why female drunkenness shows less 
diminution than male during a period of improve- 
ment are simple and sufficient. One was mentioned 
by Sir John Bridge. It is that a large proportion 
of female drunkards are prostitutes, who drink at all 
times, and are not affected by the conditions which 
tend to sobriety among the rest of the community. 
The other reason is that the bulk of the habitual 
inebriates or dipsomaniacs among the lower classes 
are women, and with inebriates drink is a prime 
necessity. They must have it whatever else they 
forego, whereas others indulge or abstain at will, or 
according to the state of their pockets. In England 
dipsomania is extremely rare among working men, 
and even in Scotland, where it is commoner, the 
women have far the worse record. Some interesting 
facts have been brought forward to show the greater 
prevalence of habitual inebriety among women. In 
Liverpool the chief constable said it was almost 



FEMALE DRUNKENNESS 87 

confined to them, and gave the following figures for 
a period of ten years : 

Persons apprehended in Liverpool in ten years 





Male 


Female 


More than 5 times 


. 1,047 


1,675 


More than 10 times 


202 


580 


More than 20 times 


25 


160 


More than 30 times 


4 


70 


More than 40 times 


1 


32 


More than 50 times 


none 


14 



A similar table for Dundee gives the recidivists 
for one year as follows : 

Times before the Court Males Females 

Twice 301 165 

Three times 101 45 

Four times 19 24 

Five times 8 15 

Six times 3 10 

Seven times — 8 

Eight times ..... 1 5 

Nine times — 3 

Ten times — 2 

The tendency of women to monopolise the field 
of habitual inebriety among the working classes is 
an important fact which is not sufficiently realised, 
It is due mainly, perhaps wholly, to their addiction 
to spirits, which in England are only drunk by a few 
special classes of men in that rank of life. Habitual 
inebriety among men is far more common in the 
upper and middle classes, which are more given to 
spirits and less to beer. However, I am not dis- 
cussing that point at present. I only wish to lay 
stress on the prevalence of habitual inebriety in 



88 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

women as a reason for their failure to improve in 
sobriety so quickly as men. 

It is not a new thing. I have given sufficient 
evidence in the previous chapters to show that 
female drinking and drunkenness are very old- 
established features of social life in this country. 
Dr. Norman Kerr's belief that some years ago 
women were never seen in the public-house is a 
strange delusion. They have been in the habit of 
frequenting that institution for a couple of centuries 
at least, and apparently in far greater numbers than 
in the present day. We have a pretty continuous 
record of their habits in that respect for the last 
seventy years at any rate. It is amusing to hear 
philanthropic ladies expatiating on the ' modern ' 
construction of public-houses, the separate entrances, 
private bars, and other wily devices to entice women. 
They do not know that the same things were described 
in almost identical terms from the magisterial bench 
in 1830, when ' the greater number ' of cases brought 
up at Bow Street were women. Then there was 
Mr. Moore's public-house census in 1834, which gave 
a daily average for each house of 2,749 customers, 
of whom 1,114 were women, or not far short of half. 
This is corroborated by the police returns. Out of 
38,440 persons apprehended 16,780, or 43 per cent., 
were women, while the ' disorderlies ' numbered 
5,178 women to 3,382 men. The police record is 
continuous since then, and women have always borne 
their share of the charge-sheet year by year. The 
question has cropped up at each of the inquiries 



FEMALE DRUNKENNESS 89 

periodically held, and evidence of their drinking 
habits has always been forthcoming. In 1854 a 
public-house census in Manchester gave 44,838 
female to 78,168 male customers, and a Mr. Balfour 
deposed that he ' had known women go in with 
children in their arms and get drunk at the bar, 
and had seen them come out and fall down with 
those children.' Again in 1876 the House of Lords 
Committee thought female intemperance was increas- 
ing because in some places the women nearly 
equalled the men. Apparently they were not aware 
that the same state of things had been demonstrated 
forty years before. Indeed, the more closely the facts 
are examined the more clearly they point to the 
conclusion that so far from women having recently 
taken to frequenting the public-house they have 
never frequented it less. It is to be regretted that 
the Royal Commission should have given currency 
and authority to an erroneous opinion which a 
moderate acquaintance with easily accessible facts 
would have enabled them to correct. 



90 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



CHAPTER V 

THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE 

The ostensible agencies by which temperance has 
been directly promoted in this country are the 
organised societies and the liquor laws, the one 
acting by voluntary, the other by compulsory means. 
Many appear to think them the only agencies. Thus 
they speak of the l temperance movement ' and ' tem- 
perance progress ' as synonymous with the operations 
of the societies, and consider a l reform of the liquor 
laws ' the one thing needful to make everybody sober. 
It is worth while, therefore, to inquire how far and 
in what way the societies and the law have been 
instrumental in effecting that improvement which I 
have already shown to have taken place during the 
last fifty or sixty years. 

Temperance Societies. — So long as drunkenness 
has existed there have been men who have denounced 
and combated it — priests, lawgivers, sages, and 
physicians — and in a sense, therefore, the ' temper- 
ance movement ' is as old as the evil itself; but the 
institution of organised societies for the promotion of 
sobriety belongs to the nineteenth century. Their 
history in this country falls into three periods. The 



THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE 91 

first covered about fifteen years, from 1829 to 1844, 
and was marked by great activity and success; the 
second, of about equal length, from 1844 to 1860, 
was a period of reaction, decline, and failure; the 
third, which has lasted until now, brought a revival 
of interest and activity, but on somewhat different 
lines. It will suffice for the present purpose to run 
briefly through the three periods and point out their 
main features. 

At its outset the movement was mainly or wholly 
religious in character, at least religion was its ani- 
mating principle. According to Dr. Dawson Burns, 
whose ' Temperance History ' — a sort of annual 
record of the doings of the societies — is the chief 
authority on the subject, we originally borrowed the 
idea from America, where isolated attempts at 
organisation were carried on here and there during 
the first quarter of last century, and eventually took 
definite shape in the American Temperance Society, 
founded in 1826 by ministers of religion. They were 
imitated by the Rev. Dr. Edgar, of Belfast, who, 
together with other Presbyterian clergymen, estab- 
lished in 1829 the ' Ulster Temperance Society,' 
the first central body of the kind in these islands, 
although for some years small semi-private associa- 
tions had been formed in different places in Ireland, 
of which the earliest is said to have been a club 
started by a working man at Skibbereen, near Cork. 
After the foundation of the ' Ulster Temperance 
Society ' the movement developed very rapidly. By 
the end of the year there were twenty-five societies 



92 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

in Ireland, with 800 members, and at least one in 
Scotland, on the Clyde. In 1830 the campaign 
advanced to several towns in Yorkshire and Lanca- 
shire, with Bradford at their head. London followed, 
and the ' Temperance Societies' Record/ a paper 
published in Scotland, stated in its report for the 
year that they had then 127 societies, with 23,000 
members, and 60,000 associated abstainers. These 
figures, surprising as they are for a movement so 
young, were said to be doubled in the following year, 
and though estimates of the kind must always be 
accepted with caution, it is quite clear that the cause 
did make extraordinarily rapid progress in those 
early days. From about 1831 England appears to 
have taken the lead, and soon outstripped her earlier 
competitors in the field. In that year an important 
central body was formed in London under the title 
of * The British and Foreign Temperance Society/ 
with Bishop Blomfield for president, and various 
other bishops and dignitaries as vice-presidents. On 
her accession to the throne in 1837, Queen Victoria 
gave additional prestige to this society, and a new 
impetus to the cause it represented, by becoming 
its patron. The number of abstainers in the United 
Kingdom at that time was estimated to be about 
170,000, of whom 150,000 were credited to England 
and Wales, while Ireland, the original parent of the 
movement, only contributed 5,000; but the day of 
Father Mathew was still to come. Meantime a 
little rift had already appeared within the lute, which 
was destined to turn the harmony into discord, and 



THE FORCES OP TEMPERANCE 93 

eventually to discredit the temperance societies to 
an extent which very few of their adherents appear 
to realise down to the present day. The pledge 
originally required of members only committed them 
to abstinence from distilled liquors, which were 
rightly thought to be the great means of demoralisa- 
tion. Fermented liquors — beer, wine, cider, and so 
on — were permitted as comparatively harmless. In 
other words, temperance was really the object aimed 
at, and moderate drinking was not made into a sin. 
But about 1832 the spirit of fanaticism began to 
appear in that home of fanatics the North of England, 
and demanded the inclusion of all alcoholic drinks 
in the ban. Total abstinence, so inaugurated, soon 
spread with an outburst of spasmodic enthusiasm, 
and was not a little helped by the catch-word 
' teetotal/ which is merely an intensive form of 
1 total 9 colloquially used in the North. The British 
and Foreign Temperance Society, however, declined 
to fall in with the extremists, whereupon a quarrel 
ensued, and led to a partial break-up of the society, 
some members of which formed a new and rival 
organisation on teetotal principles. About this time 
Father Mathew was entering upon his great crusade 
in Ireland, and under his sensational influence the 
total abstinence movement for a time carried all 
before it. 

The accounts of Father Mathew 's mission from 
1838 to 1842 read like a fable. He made teetotalers 
as the great Powers make soldiers, by the million, 
only much faster ; and if there had been any staying- 



94 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

power in the business, the liquor question would 
have been settled out of hand. Wherever he went 
a veritable fury of sacrifice appears to have seized 
the people of Ireland, though the estimated number 
of converts must be discounted by the equal fury 
of exaggeration which seized the chroniclers of his 
progress. Thus in 1839 he is said to have adminis- 
tered 30,000 pledges in one day at Clonmel, and 
from 100,000 to 150,000 in two days at Limerick. 
Unless pledges were taken by acclamation it would 
be physically impossible to administer one quarter 
the number stated. In 1840 he is said to have added 
748,000 to the ranks, or an average of over 2,000 per 
diem for every day in the year, and by 1841 the 
number of total abstainers in Ireland was reckoned 
at 4,647,000, or considerably more than the entire 
adult population. Any one may believe it who likes ; 
but whatever the exact truth may be, it is certain 
that this homely village priest did for a time meet 
with a success beside which the united efforts of all 
the other organisers of temperance, before and after 
him, fade into insignificance. In three years the 
consumption of spirits in Ireland was actually reduced 
from 10,815,000 gallons to 5,290,000 gallons, and 
drunkenness practically abolished. An elderly lady 
described to me the other day how she travelled 
through Ireland about that time without seeing a 
single drunken man, and how striking was the 
contrast between the perfect sobriety of Cork and 
the rolling intoxication of Bristol, which met her 
eyes on landing. 



THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE 95 

Father Mathew's statue stands to-day in Patrick 
Street, but his face is happily turned towards the 
bridge, so that he cannot see the numerous liquor- 
shops which now adorn that noble thoroughfare. His 
mission was a flash in the pan, a sudden outburst of 
Celtic zeal, which burnt too fiercely to last, and 
already the reaction set in when his back was turned 
in 1843. That year he came to England and made 
a considerable impression — a greater impression 
than any one else has ever done in the same cause — 
but nothing like his triumphal progress in Ireland. 
The people everywhere were growing tired of the 
violent teetotal propaganda, which had in turn killed 
the more moderate and promising policy of the 
early thirties. The whole cause declined and lan- 
guished. At the beginning of 1849 it could no 
longer support even a weekly journal, which had not 
failed for the previous twelve years, and in 1850 the 
British and Foreign Temperance Society perished 
of inanition on the resignation of Bishop Blomfield, 
while the National Temperance Society (the chief 
teetotal body) found its ' sphere of operations greatly 
restricted from diminished subscriptions,' and had 
presently to be reorganised under another name. 
Then other organisations came to grief one after 
another and dissolved. From America came the 
same dismal tale. ' The cause in this country,' 
wrote Mr. J. B. Gough in 1857, ' is in a depressed 
state. The Maine law is a dead letter everywhere. 
More liquor is sold than I ever knew before in 
Massachusetts, and in other States it is about as 



96 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

bad ' (Dawson Burns). In spite of this discourag- 
ing account of the Maine prohibition law, only- 
passed in 1851, from the pen of a zealous advocate 
of the cause, the United Kingdom Alliance, which 
had been formed in Manchester in 1853 for the 
purpose of getting a similar law passed in England, 
pursued its way with that enviable indifference to 
awkward facts which has characterised it up to the 
present day, and it was rewarded before long by a 
distinct revival of interest in the temperance cause. 

This, the third, period in the history of the 
societies began about 1860. It was marked by the 
introduction of several new elements. The religious 
motive, which was the mainspring of the original 
movement, as I have already said, still played a 
prominent part, and that has since become more 
important again through the strong lead taken by 
the Church of England Temperance Society; but it 
was accompanied, and at first overshadowed, by 
other interests, all borrowed from America. Besides 
the political element represented by the United 
Kingdom Alliance, there were the benefit societies — 
the Sons of Temperance, Kechabites, 1 and Sons of 
the Phoenix — appealing especially to the class of 
artisans and small tradesmen, and somewhat later 
the Order of Good Templars introduced from the 

1 The Order of Rechabites was founded in 1835, but did not 
become important until the later period. It is now a large and 
flourishing society with over 100,000 adult and juvenile mem- 
bers in the United Kingdom. The Sons of Temperance number 
32,000 ' adult ' members. These and the figures given on page 
98 were obtained in 1896. 



THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE 97 

United States in 1868. This appears to be a sort 
of masonic brotherhood, which aims generally at 
furthering the cause of temperance by investing 
it with the mysterious attractions of a secret society. 
They all throve more or less on the revival of the 
sixties, and there were other signs of renewed 
activity, such as the foundation of a Police Tem- 
perance Society, a Working Men's Teetotal League, 
and so forth. The Church of England Society was 
formed in 1862, and was followed a few years later by 
a movement among the Roman Catholics under the 
influence of Cardinal Manning. . In short, the in- 
terest became pretty general, and not a little of it 
must be ascribed to the great popular success of 
Mrs. Henry Wood's prize story, ' Danesbury House,' 
published in 1860. I have not read this cleverly 
written tale since boyhood, but, if I remember rightly, 
Mrs. Henry Wood made all her characters succeed or 
fail in life precisely in proportion to their indulgence 
in alcoholic liquors, and rather pointed the teetotal 
moral that any one who takes a single glass of wine 
or beer has already placed himself in the grasp of an 
inexorable power, and can only be saved from de- 
struction by a tremendous struggle. At any rate, 
uncompromising teetotalism held the field at that 
time, with the assistance of the various interests 
enumerated, and uncompromising teetotalism has 
remained the battle-cry of the societies, with one 
notable exception, ever since. The history of most 
of them for the last twenty years, so far as it can be 
made out from the scanty materials available, has 



98 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

been uneventful. If they have never sunk to the 
point of collapse reached in the fifties, neither have 
they risen to anything like the numerical and moral 
success of Father Mathew's time. There have 
been unseemly quarrels in the ranks here and there, 
secessions and so forth, and some societies have 
undergone curious fluctuations. For instance, the 
Good Templars, who numbered over 200,000 mem- 
bers in England and Wales in 1873, appear to have 
sunk to 97,000 in 1879. I endeavoured a few years 
ago to obtain the data for something like an estimate 
of the total temperance roll-call at the present 
time, but without success. Accurate information 
is only forthcoming about a few of the organisa- 
tions; all the rest is guess-work. The following 
figures were kindly furnished me by the Secretary 
of the Church of England Temperance Society, 
which I take to be by far the largest and most 
flourishing body : 

General or Temperance Section . . 53,393 

Total Abstaining 171,637 

Juvenile 384,289 



Total. . 609,319 

The great preponderance of the juvenile section, 
which will strike the reader, holds good, and in a 
higher degree, of the temperance army generally. 
Its numerical strength is made up of children, who 
constitute four-fifths of the whole, according to 
Mr. Malins. This explains the discrepancy between 
its real electoral insignificance, as proved at the 



THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE 99 

general election of 1895, and the prodigious extent 
of membership claimed by its advocates. All the 
societies, including the friendly and other orders, 
appear to have large juvenile sections, and then there 
are the Bands of Hope, which run nominally into 
millions. But bearing this in mind, one must still 
believe that even so the numbers are enormously 
exaggerated. According to Mr. Malins, one person 
in eight out of the whole population is a teetotaler; 
other authorities, I understand, claim seven and a 
half million adherents to the cause, making the 
proportion about one in five. How does this agree 
with ordinary experience? For my own part, out 
of the many hundred men, women, and children 
I know in all classes of life, there are only two or 
three teetotalers. Where are the vast hordes of 
abstainers to be found? In what class of life? 
Certainly not among the poor, else what would 
become of the public-house? and just as certainly 
not among the upper and middle classes. I beg to 
suggest that a Parliamentary return on the subject 
would be useful in showing us where we are, and 
where the societies are, for at present nobody knows. 
In making these remarks I would by no means 
be understood to imply a sneer at the societies. 
Their development of the juvenile work is wholly in 
accord with their original aim, which was rather to 
prevent than to rescue from vice. From the tee- 
total point of view, which regards taking a glass of 
liquor as putting one's foot over the edge of a preci- 
pice, nothing can be more efficacious than the 



100 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

policy of keeping the young at a safe distance. On 
the other hand, those who disbelieve in the precipice 
theory, and think self-control the manlier and more 
moral aim, will consider organised juvenile absti- 
nence as at best a doubtful gain. They will see in 
it merely a movement for making little prigs of the 
children of respectable parents, who are either in no 
real danger as it is of ever becoming drunkards, or, 
in so far as they are in danger, will not be prevented 
from succumbing, when they gain their liberty, by 
shackles artificially imposed in childhood. The 
question of juveniles is thus a matter of opinion; 
the gain may be denied or affirmed, but it cannot be 
proved either way. 

Putting them aside, therefore, and coming to 
the comparatively limited operations of the societies 
among adults, I cannot find any evidence that 
their direct influence on the habits of the people 
has been at all important, with the exception of 
two or three special classes. Father Mathew no 
doubt produced a great and tangible effect, which 
was not altogether so transient as it appeared, 
and the general fall of the drink barometer during 
the height of the first temperance period was no 
mere coincidence, though other causes, as I have 
already shown, co-operated with the movement. 
But during the last thirty years the failure of the 
teetotal propaganda to capture any large section of 
the population is sufficiently proved by the statistics 
of consumption. The people have drunk more or 
less, according to the state of their pockets at 



THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE 101 

different times, but the net result has been to leave 
the general level of consumption almost unchanged. 
What has happened is that many of the grossest 
abuses of the traffic have been diminished or re- 
moved, and that there is more moderate and less 
excessive drinking than there was. If this had been 
the object of the societies they could claim a large 
share of the credit; but they chose to go upon 
total abstinence, and that has clearly failed in its 
immediate effects. In truth, they hardly touch the 
mass of the people at all. They are composed, for 
the most part, of earnest persons belonging to the 
middle and lower-middle classes, eminently respect- 
able, and never in any danger whatever of falling 
victims to drunkenness. They are animated — to 
use Dr. Dawson Burns 's words — ' by a desire not so 
much to benefit themselves as to do good to others ' ; 
and all honour to them for it. But the others refuse 
to listen to any appreciable extent, and the chief 
reason is that they resent the whole principle of 
total abstinence as a needless interference with one 
of the good things of life and an insult to their 
self-respect. The very name ' temperance ' has 
long been a by-word among educated and uneducated 
alike by being usurped to cover a bigoted and self- 
righteous propaganda from which everything tem- 
perate was eliminated. The Church of England 
Society stands out as having recognised this fact, 
which is known to every one save teetotalers; and 
its great and growing influence must be attributed 
in a large measure to its moderate attitude. It is 



102 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

one of the youngest of the societies, having been 
formed on its present basis in 1873, but it is already 
the largest, I believe, and by far the most influential. 
When its really temperate character is better under- 
stood, and it has shaken itself free from the damaging 
associations unfortunately connected in the mind of 
the public with the name ' Temperance Society/ a 
great extension of its activity may be confidently 
expected. True temperance should be, and indeed 
already is, a national cause; total abstinence neither 
is, nor seems likely to be. 

Liquor Legislation. — Those who are accustomed 
to hear the liquor question spoken of as a thing 
terribly neglected by the Legislature may be sur- 
prised to learn that during the first fifty years of the 
late reign at least twenty-five Acts of Parliament 
were passed for dealing with some aspect or other of 
the traffic, exclusive of Inland Eevenue Acts. Is 
there any other question which can show an average 
record of one Act every two years? Considering 
also the number of Select Committees of both 
Houses and Koyal Commissions that have sat upon 
it, Parliament cannot be fairly accused of neglect. 
But, it is said, the legislation has been a failure. 
That depends on what was expected of it; and if its 
promoters did expect too much, those who are most 
anxious for fresh measures are hardly in a position 
to bring that charge against them, to judge from 
their own utterances. The Liquor Laws did not 
abolish drunkenness, and, if they were expected to do 
so, they were so far a failure; but some of them did 



THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE 103 

a great deal more good than is generally supposed, 
and contributed most materially to the improvement 
I have previously described. I will enumerate, in 
chronological order, the most important Acts bearing 
on the present question, with special reference to 
those which have been attended with beneficial 
results. 

1834. An Act designed to check the unfortunate 
results which had attended the Duke of Wellington's 
Beer Act of 1830. That measure had practically 
thrown the beer trade open to anybody who chose 
to start a pothouse. The object was to encourage 
the consumption of beer and cider in the hope of 
diminishing spirit-drinking; but the immediate 
result was to multiply the number of disorderly little 
beer-shops without in the least depressing the spirit 
traffic. The Act of 1834 made a magistrate's certifi- 
cate compulsory before a license could be obtained, and 
did something to check the growth of the evil. The 
point is interesting for the light it throws on free 
trade in liquor, which some people advocate to-day. 

1839. An Act for closing public-houses in London 
from midnight on Saturday until 12 o'clock on 
Sunday morning. I have already drawn attention 
to it and its effects (p. 61), and need not repeat 
the evidence quoted from the House of Commons 
inquiry of 1834 on the abominable scenes which 
used to take place on Sunday morning. Saturday 
night and Sunday morning were the occasions 
of more drunkenness than the rest of the week put 
together; and this Act worked wonders. The 



104 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

metropolitan ' drunks ' fell gradually from 21,237 in 
1838 to 8,321 in 1844. That remarkable improve- 
ment was not all due to the law, as I have pointed 
out before, because the temperance crusade attained 
its zenith in the very same period and great distress 
prevailed simultaneously, but the beneficial effects 
of the measure on public order were conclusively 
established before the House of Commons Com- 
mittee of 1854, by the unanimous testimony of 
a crowd of witnesses, including publicans, police, 
working men, and temperance agents. The case 
seems to me most instructive, and a valuable proof 
of the efficacy of a reasonable restriction of hours. 

1840. The Beer-house Act was further amended 
in the direction of greater stringency. Licenses 
were only to be granted to the real resident occupier 
of premises under a property qualification and other 
conditions. The object was to weed out the specu- 
lative and poverty-stricken pothouses, which have 
always been, and still are, the scene of the worst 
abuses. 

1842. An Act providing greater facilities for the 
transfer of licenses. 

1845. A Gaming Act, almost inoperative, as 
shown before the inquiry of 1854, because the police 
had no power of entry. 

1854-55. Hours of Sunday-closing fixed generally. 
A valuable measure. The consumption of spirits 
fell by four million gallons. In Scotland the im- 
portant Forbes Mackenzie Act came into operation 
in 1854. It introduced various licensing reforms, 



THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE 105 

and total Sunday-closing. Up to 1828 there had been 
Sunday-closing under the common law, but after 
that there appears to have been no closing time, and 
the state of things was like that in London up to 
1839. Sunday-closing has worked well in Scotland, 
though it gave some trouble at first. 

1860. Mr. Gladstone's celebrated Wine and 
Eefreshment Houses Act, authorising l grocers' li- 
censes,' which are not grocers' licenses at all. 
According to the Act, every person keeping a shop 
is entitled to take out a license to retail wine for off- 
consumption. Further, licenses were required for 
all refreshment houses, and eating-house keepers 
were entitled to take out wine licenses for consump- 
tion on the premises. All these provisions have been 
heartily abused, and the Act has occasioned much 
controversy. The real crime of the measure is that it 
encourages moderate drinking, as it was intended to 
do. Poor Mr. Gladstone was never sound on that point. 

1861. A further plunge into crime in the shape 
of an Act permitting the retail sale of spirits by the 
bottle for off-consumption, and also the sale of very 
small beer (at not more than l^d. the quart) in any 
house or shop under a five-shilling license. These 
measures are more doubtful, especially the latter, 
which seems needless and foolish. 

1862. A Scotch amending Act, intended among 
other things to check the illicit traffic which had 
been stimulated by Sunday-closing. It also imposed 
penalties for drunkenness. 

1864. A Closing Act, forbidding public-houses to 



106 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

be opened again after the legal hour until 4 a.m. 
This was a useful Act, and necessary to prevent 
evasion of the law. It was amended in the following 
year by provisions for suspending the regulation in 
special cases. Also a Beer-houses Act for Ireland, 
dealing chiefly with beer licenses for * off '-con- 
sumption. 

1869. Wine and Beer-house Act — an important 
licensing measure. The principal provisions were: 
(1) Eetail licenses not to be granted without a 
certificate given annually by justices; (2) Certificate 
might be refused on account of (a) failure of appli- 
cant to produce satisfactory evidence of good 
character; (&) house in question being disorderly; 
(c) previous forfeiture; (d) applicant or his house 
not being duly qualified by law. These measures 
had a most beneficial effect, which was further 
enhanced by the legislation of 1872 and 1874. They 
may therefore be taken together. 

1872. Licensing Act — the most important meas- 
ure of the century. It contained ninety clauses, 
of which the most pertinent may be summarised as 
dealing with the following points: 

(1) Prohibition of sale of intoxicating liquors 
without license — penalty for first offence a fine of 
501. or one month's imprisonment; for second 
offence 100?. or three months, with forfeiture of 
license and disqualification for five years; for third 
offence 1001. or six months, and unlimited disqualifi- 
cation. 

(2) Prohibition of sale of spirits to persons under 



THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE 107 

sixteen years of age — penalty 20s. for first and 405. 
for second offence. 

(3) Penalty for being found drunk in any high- 
way or other public place, or on any licensed 
premises, up to 10s. for first offence, 20s. for second, 
and 405. for third. Penalty for riotous or dis- 
orderly behaviour while drunk, up to 405. 

(4) Penalty for permitting drunkenness or vio- 
lence on premises, or for selling liquor to a drunken 
person, 101. for first offence, and 201. for the second, 
with compulsory endorsement of license (altered in 
1874 to optional endorsement). 

(5) Penalty for harbouring constables, and for 
permitting them to drink or supplying them with 
drink, 101. and 201. 

(6) Penalty for permitting gaming, 10Z. and 201. 

(7) Power given to publicans to exclude any one 
who is drunken, violent, quarrelsome, or disorderly. 

(8) Forfeiture of license on repeated conviction; 
on the third offence recorded disqualification of the 
man and the house. 

1874. Licensing Act, of which the chief pro- 
visions related to the power of the police to enter 
licensed premises, the fixing of hours of closing as at 
present, the exemption of bona fide travellers, the 
mitigation of some of the 1872 regulations, and 
adulteration. 

These Acts were markedly successful. The 
report of the House of Lords Select Committee of 
1876 stated that ' recent legislation has had a bene- 
ficial effect throughout the country by producing 



108 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

good order in the streets, by abolishing the class of 
beer-houses, and by improving the character of 
licensed houses generally.' Further, ' the process 
of weeding out the most disorderly beer-houses has 
taken effect throughout the country.' A large 
number of witnesses from various places gave evi- 
dence of the beneficial effects of legislation. For 
their opinions see Chapter VII., on ' The Principles 
of Liquor Legislation ' (p. 166). 

The numerous Acts which have been passed 
since 1874 relate chiefly to minor points, but a few 
must be mentioned. 

1876-77. Scotch Acts, extending to Scotland 
some of the provisions of the 1872-74 English Acts. 

1878. Sunday-closing in Ireland, except in Dub- 
lin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick, and Waterford; had a 
good effect. 

1881. Sunday-closing in Wales. In the smaller 
places it appears to have been quite successful, but 
in Cardiff it caused much trouble by forcing illicit 
trade, in the shape of clubs and shebeens. The 
women of the working classes complained bitterly of 
it: ' The men used to come home at ten o'clock, 
now they come at three or four in the morning.' 
This trouble has now been largely overcome, but 
there is still much opposition to the measure. 

1882. An Act giving justices full discretion over 
1 off ' beer licenses. 

1883. An Act prohibiting the payment of work- 
men in public-houses — a useful measure, far too 
long delayed. 



THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE 109 

1885. An Act defining beer for Inland Eevenue 
purposes as ' any liquor which is made or sold as a 
description of beer, or as a substitute for beer, 
containing more than 2 per cent, of alcohol.' Beer 
may be made of almost anything under the Acts. 
But the analyses under the Local Government 
Board show that deleterious substitutes are not 
used, and that the only serious adulteration is by 
water with sugar, and possibly salt, but the latter is 
doubtful. 

1886. An Act prohibiting the sale of liquor to 
persons under thirteen for consumption on the 
premises. 

1887. A Scotch Act, giving local authorities 
power to close earlier (10 p.m.), except in towns of 
over 50,000 inhabitants. 

1897. A further Scotch amending Act, relating to 
licenses to retail I sweets.' 

1901. Child Messenger Act, prohibiting sale to chil- 
dren under fourteen for ' off '-consumption, except 
in sealed vessels. 

The reader who has waded through the foregoing 
list will admit, I think, that the Legislature has 
neither shirked the liquor question nor wholly failed 
in dealing with it, in spite of numerous blunders. 
Of the two agencies I have been discussing, the law 
seems to have more tangible results to its credit than 
the societies. But in truth it is only a superficial 
view which would regard these two things as repre- 
senting the forces of temperance. Many far wider 
and deeper influences have been at work during the 



110 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

period under discussion. Great changes have passed 
over the country — changes religious, political, social, 
economical, intellectual, and scientific; and not one 
but has in some degree touched the liquor question. 
The activity of the Churches, and particularly the 
regeneration of the Church of England, has done 
much to raise the standard of morality. The pos- 
session of political power has quickened the sense of 
responsibility in the people, and taught them more 
self-respect. Conversely, the social and industrial 
upheaval has forced employers of labour, landowners, 
and the upper classes generally to recognise, as they 
never did before, their duty to those around them 
and dependent on them. The physical conditions of 
life have been improved among the working classes 
by the entirely new science of hygiene and by the 
cheapening of food. Their mental condition has 
been equally affected by facilities for locomotion, 
by education, and the development of the press and 
other cheap literature. In this connection, the testi- 
mony of a working man, given so far back as 1854, 
is worth quoting. He had spoken emphatically of 
the diminution of drunkenness in his own class, and 
was asked to what he attributed it. ' There are a 
great many books published,' he said, ' periodicals 
and that like, which helps to open their understand- 
ing, and they get to know better. They have other 
pursuits, and they enjoy themselves more at home. 
Very many take in some little periodical or other. ' 

And there is something more than all these 
things, something which is partly formed by them, 



THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE 111 

but is yet distinct, which partly acts through them, 
and at the same time more directly. I mean what 
we call public opinion. It is an impalpable sort of 
thing, but very real, and by far the most powerful of 
all forces in a free country. The enactment, and 
still more the administration, of the law depend 
upon it. The societies depend upon it. As Dr. 
Dawson Burns says, ' Temperance reform has suc- 
ceeded as far as the willingness of society to adopt 
it has permitted it to succeed. How much farther 
could it succeed? . . . Temperance history is a 
record of success so far as men have been ready 
to co-operate in that reform.' Now public opinion 
is the outcome of many influences, and that is true 
in this particular question no less than in others. 
There are the general influences mentioned above, 
and certain special ones, including the temperance 
societies themselves. Their indirect effects in helping 
to form public opinion have been most important. 
That has, in fact, been their real work far more than 
the enrolment of members and the administration of 
individual pledges. As the Bishop of Eochester said a 
few years ago at a diocesan meeting of the C.E.T.S., 
their task is to ' educate public opinion.' It is, and 
always has been. They have pushed the question to 
the front, and insisted on attention being given to it. 
They have stimulated the public conscience. And 
possibly the extremists, by their very violence, have 
done this most effectively up to a certain point. The 
world is made up of all sorts, and in the day of stag- 
nation a handful of fanatics may do good service by 



112 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

stimulating that progress which is the only alterna- 
tive to decay. If they had their way altogether they 
would probably do a great deal of harm. But as 
there is not the remotest chance of that, let us cheer- 
fully credit them with a fair measure of good. 

Much as the temperance organisations have 
done, however, to keep us all alive to the evils of 
intemperance, there has been another influence, I 
think, working more quietly but more surely, and 
with more practical effect. Drinking is largely a 
matter of social usage; the majority of people drink 
much or little according to the custom of the society 
in which they live. And in matters of social usage 
every class is apt to be strongly influenced by 
the class above, into which it is for ever aspiring 
to climb. Democratic as we may affect to be, the 
lower orders persistently imitate the higher so far as 
they know how; indeed, the more democratic they 
are, the more they imitate, to show their equality. 
Now, it is the fact that up to the early part of last 
century social custom not only permitted but en- 
couraged drunkenness among the upper classes, who 
regularly and publicly set the example to the lower ; 
and that a complete revolution has since taken place 
in this respect. 1 It began before the ' temperance 
movement/ and went on steadily, independent of 

1 My mother, who is 83, tells me that in country houses when 
she was a young girl the gentlemen always came to the draw- 
ing-room intoxicated after dinner. No one thought anything 
of it. Of course the practice of ladies withdrawing after dinner 
(hence the term * drawing '-room) was originally necessitated 
by the masculine orgies. I think smoking has a good deal to 
do with modern dinner-table moderation. 



THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE 113 

that propaganda, and apparently uninfluenced by it. 
It has been a gradual change in the standard of con- 
duct, in favour of sobriety as part of the behaviour 
expected of a gentleman. Total abstinence had 
nothing to do with it; there was no question of 
abstaining; but drunkenness has come to be regarded 
as discreditable and offensive, as * bad form ' in short, 
instead of being quite the right and proper thing. 
It is idle to say that the lower classes are unaware 
of the fact, or uninfluenced by it. What do servants 
think of a drunken master? What do the people 
think of a drunken clergyman or Member of Parlia- 
ment, let alone a Cabinet Minister or a judge ? They 
think him a disgrace, however drunk they may get 
themselves, because a man in his position is expected 
to conform to a higher standard. And in proportion 
as they respect themselves, the lower classes are 
moved insensibly to make that standard their own. 
The influence is gradually permeating their ranks, 
and traces of it can be found very low down in the 
scale by those who care to look. The reader may 
not agree with me in attaching so much weight to 
this social factor, but no one can deny its existence, 
and I can call one unimpeachable witness to the im- 
portance of a social lead from the upper classes in re- 
gard to temperance. Dr. Dawson Burns, speaking of 
the decline of the movement in Ireland, remarks that 
1 the causes are not far to seek. As early as 1841, 
almost at the culmination of the popular movement, 
it was noticed with regret and apprehension that the 
upper and upper-middle classes, both Protestant and 



114 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

Roman Catholic, had not joined the reform, and it 
was predicted that should this continue the want of 
moral support from such quarters would enfeeble 
and imperil the whole reform. The prediction was 
lamentably fulfilled. ' In other words, a social move- 
ment, if it is to last, must begin from the top, which 
is just my point. Therefore, I regard the example of 
society as a most important factor in bringing about 
that organic change in tone which marks the last 
fifty or sixty years. And though the improvement 
in manners began quite early in the century, the 
chief credit for maintaining and developing it belongs 
to the steady influence of the Court of Queen Vic- 
toria. This is one of the many ways in which Her 
late Majesty's wise and high-minded rule worked 
quietly and unostentatiously for the benefit of her 
people. 

A word in conclusion about the future. Most of 
the i Forces of Temperance ' discussed above will 
continue to work naturally and surely; but a good 
deal may be done actively to help on the improve- 
ment. The organisations have their work before 
them in pegging away at the further education of 
public opinion, and the more reasonable their tone, 
the greater will be the attention paid to them. 
Similarly with the Legislature. There is plenty of 
encouragement in the past for moderate and well- 
considered legislation, and as public opinion changes, 
measures of that kind may be brought forward with 
good prospects of success. Chapters VII. and VIII. 
are devoted to a more detailed consideration of this 
subject. 



115 



CHAPTER VI 

THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 

The fundamental fact at the bottom of the drink 
question is the physiological action of alcoholic 
liquor on the animal organism. People like it and 
drink to please themselves. It is necessary to insist 
on this truism because — like a good many other 
truisms — it is perpetually forgotten. Most ' schemes ' 
of liquor legislation are in fact based on the assump- 
tion that people drink to please some one else. They 
are said to be in the ' murderous grip ' of the trade, 
from which they would fain escape if the opportunity 
were allowed them. The ' murderous grip ' is the 
extreme view, expressed in that rhetorical manner 
which is generally associated with lack of matter. 
There are other views less extravagant but still 
inspired by the idea that the moving force of in- 
temperance is not so much the desire of the drinker 
as the greed of the purveyor, or, it may be, some 
external circumstance. The drunkard is ' enticed,' 
4 led, ' l tempted ' by various devices, or he is c driven 9 
to drink by the squalor of his surroundings and the 
lack of other pleasures. Such is the theory. I do 
not say there is nothing in it. There is something 



116 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

but not much. The essential and dominant factor 
is the desire, the determination, of the individual, 
and all attempts to ignore it, to exaggerate the 
importance of externals and to minimise the re- 
sponsibility of the drinker for his own excess tend 
only to a distorted view of the problem, and to futile 
or mischievous legislation. 

Man's liking for alcoholic liquor rests on a 
physiological basis which can no more be argued 
away than the physiological distinction between the 
sexes. Wine maketh glad the heart of man. We 
are so formed by Nature, and though there are 
always people who think they can defy or alter the 
decrees of Nature, she has her way in the end and 
bates not a jot. It is futile to ignore the decree, how- 
ever sure we may be that we could have arranged 
things better. It might, or might not, be to our ad- 
vantage if we had been differently constituted and 
alcoholic products had no such effect as they have. 
But the effect is there ; the wise man recognises and 
reckons with it. I am not going to enter on the weary 
question whether alcohol is good or bad, a food or 
a poison. All that is beside my point, more especially 
as no one drinks or wants to drink i alcohol,' but 
only certain liquids which contain alcohol along with 
many other things. The point on which I wish to 
insist is that these liquids are agreeable to the 
human organism — and, for the matter of that, to 
most if not to all animals. They exhilarate, they 
remove depression, they lighten pain, they make 
glad the heart ; and doing so they foster conviviality 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 117 

and good-fellowship, they make the individual pleased 
with himself and others ; they make life seem brighter 
and more enjoyable. Temporarily, of course, and 
only up to a certain point. Still they do it, and man 
desires them for that reason. 

It follows that he desires them most and is apt to 
indulge in them to excess in those circumstances 
in which he has most need of their exhilarating 
properties— in circumstances, that is to say, of gloom 
and depression. Hence the influence of climate and 
weather, which are the most important of all the 
standing conditions affecting intemperance. The 
most drunken countries in Europe are Scandinavia, 
Northern Eussia, and Scotland; the most sober, 
excluding Orientals, are Portugal, Spain, and Italy. 
I speak from observation, which is borne out by 
police records. The statement may seem at variance 
with the returns showing the consumption in different 
countries issued by the Board of Trade, but the 
apparent discrepancy is easily explained. For one 
thing the data on which the Board of Trade returns 
are based are in the case of several foreign countries 
too imperfect to be trustworthy for purposes of 
precise comparison. But, apart from that, con- 
sumption and intemperance have no necessary 
relation at all, especially when different countries 
are compared. Italy, Spain, and Portugal are wine- 
growing countries. Wine is made almost every- 
where; it costs very little and everybody drinks it 
at all meals. Consequently the national consump- 
tion is comparatively high, but the individual is 



118 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

very temperate. In these warm climates people are 
most sparing. A very little of the common, un- 
brandied red wine, diluted with water, is taken at 
each meal. That was also the practice in France, 
another wine-growing country, until the destruction 
of the vines by the phylloxera led the people to 
drink spirits as a beverage. This caused a most 
instructive increase of drunkenness, particularly 
among the mining and industrial population. But 
France is still a very temperate country compared 
with England. The police drunkenness is less 
than one fourth and almost confined to the North. 
In short the manner and distribution of drinking 
have to be taken into account when one country 
is compared with another. Otherwise the most 
erroneous conclusions will be drawn from statistics 
of consumption. For instance, Portugal appears 
to be as large a consumer as the United Kingdom, 
but drunkenness is really unknown there. The 
American Minister who had lived there for many 
years told me that he had never seen a drunken 
man, and my own observations entirely confirm his 
experience. I have looked for drunkenness in the 
large towns, in Lisbon and Oporto, but have never 
seen a single individual in the slightest degree the 
worse for liquor. In Sweden, on the other hand, 
and still more in Norway, the consumption per head 
is much lower ; but drunkenness is rife in the towns. 
The fact is that alcoholic consumption is diffused 
in some countries and concentrated in others. It is 
particularly diffused in the wine-producing countries, 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 119 

where wine is drunk merely as an ordinary article of 
diet and in a weak form, but by everybody, children 
included. It is particularly concentrated in the 
most northern countries, where drink is taken to 
stimulate. It is concentrated in three respects — 
(1) the form of liquor; (2) the number of persons 
using it, for children, who do not need exhilarating, 
consume as a whole very little alcohol in these 
countries; (3) the period of drinking, which is to a 
great extent compressed into a few hours in the even- 
ing, instead of being distributed over the whole day. 
These considerations explain the apparent dis- 
crepancy between the geographical distribution of in- 
temperance and the returns relating to consumption. 
Broadly speaking, the inhabitants of raw, dull, and 
damp climates are pre-eminently given to excessive 
indulgence, while those who live under warm and 
sunny skies are temperate in habit. The influence 
of climate is plainly discernible when different parts 
of the United Kingdom are compared. The northern 
counties of England are more drunken than the 
southern, Scotland is more drunken than England, 
and the west coast of Scotland more drunken than 
the east. A table prepared by the Home Office to 
show the geographical distribution by counties for 
the years 1890-94 brings out some interesting facts. 
It gives the average annual number of persons pro- 
ceeded against for drunkenness per 100,000 of the 
population. The mean for the whole is 620. The 
following are the figures for the twelve highest and 
the twelve lowest counties. The former are all in 



120 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



the north and west, the latter all in south, east, or 
midlands. 



Highest 




Lowest 






Northumberland . 


1813 


Cambridge . 119 


Durham 


1351 


Oxford . 






136 


Glamorgan 




1089 


Wiltshire 






137 


Lancaster 




1038 


Suffolk . 






140 


Pembroke 




877 


Rutland 






140 


Shropshire 




783 


Huntingdon 






144 


Brecon . 




759 


Norfolk . 






184 


Cumberland 




756 


Cornwall 






207 


Stafford 




718 


Essex 






219 


Monmouth 




718 


Bedford 






226 


Worcester 




709 


Middlesex 






228 


Chester . 




671 


Somerset 






229 



The differences are very striking and too great 
to be accidental. No doubt other factors than 
geographical position come into play. The sober 
counties have a generally rural character, the drunken 
ones are mining and agricultural; but we find Cum- 
berland, a northern rural county, high in the list, 
and Essex, which has a very large industrial popula- 
tion, equally low. If the counties are divided into 
two classes, having (1) over 400, and (2) under 400 
cases of drunkenness per 100,000, and if a line is 
drawn across England from the Severn to the Wash, 
all the counties on the south side of it are found to 
be in the second class, and all those to the north, 
with three or four insignificant exceptions, in the 
first. London itself, which stands in a category of its 
own, only comes twelfth on the list, between Worces- 
tershire and Cheshire. The drunkenness of Northum- 
berland is conspicuous. It called forth some strong 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 121 

comments by Mr. Justice Wills at the Nor th-E astern 
assizes in March 1901, on account of the exceptional 
amount of crime that came before him from this 
cause. The police returns, therefore, for that county 
reflect a real condition of things and cannot be ex- 
plained by any difference in procedure or activity. 
The causes are no doubt the climate and the mining 
occupation. As one travels north the climate 
becomes colder and wetter, and Scotland is more 
drunken even than Northumberland. Colonel 
McHardy, Chairman of the Prison Commissioners 
of Scotland, has pointed out that in the towns to the 
west of the main watershed the average number of 
offences is 35 per 1,000, in towns to the east it is 
only 22 per 1,000, and he attributes the difference in 
part at least to the greater dampness of the west 
coast, which conduces to more drinking* It is to be 
noted that a raw and damp climate tends particu- 
larly to the use of spirits. North Russia, Scandi- 
navia, and Scotland are pre-eminently spirit-drinking 
countries. All classes habitually consume this form 
of alcohol, which is the most concentrated and the 
most intoxicating; and the traveller who is not 
accustomed to take it in the same manner at home 
finds that the climate gives it a relish which it lacks 
elsewhere and enables him to drink it with comfort 
and satisfaction to an amount and at hours which 
would be exceedingly disagreeable to him in other 
climates. The sportsman in the Highlands, who 
gets his feet wet within five minutes of leaving the 
house, who wades through burns up to his waist and 



122 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

is drenched by rain or mist, has no difficulty in 
understanding the native taste for raw whisky. In 
Sweden, which has a very similar climate, it is the 
custom even in good society to begin dinner with 
a glass or two of raw spirits. Ladies take their 
share with every one else, and it does not seem to 
hurt them. They are not given to inebriety, in spite 
of this practice, which would have a very sinister 
significance elsewhere. The glass of spirits seems 
suitable to the country. When I was there the 
idea of beginning dinner in this way was at first re- 
pugnant to me, and I watched others doing it with 
something like disgust. I particularly dislike drink- 
ing anything between or before meals, and care very 
little for spirits at any time in ordinary circumstances. 
But in a short time the repugnance died away, I 
began to fall in with the custom of the country and 
eventually quite enjoyed it. The Swedish working 
man habitually drinks raw spirits and will toss off a 
couple of large glasses one after another. I do not 
pretend to understand the physiology of the matter, 
but there is no doubt about the fact that a combina- 
tion of cold and damp predisposes to the consump- 
tion of the more concentrated alcoholic liquors. The 
same people drink more in winter than in summer 
and more in a cold winter than a mild one. The 
extraordinarily cold winter of 1895 caused such an 
exceptional consumption of rum in this country as 
to make an appreciable difference to the Budget. 

In a warm country, on the other hand, the healthy 
organism only fancies alcoholic liquors in a dilute 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 123 

form, and raw spirits as consumed in northern 
climates are utterly distasteful. They are only used 
in minute quantities as a digestive after dinner. I 
believe the sunlight has a good deal to do with it. 
The physiological action of sunlight is not at all un- 
derstood, but we do know that its absence, under dull 
and gloomy skies, is ' depressing/ whatever may be 
the precise meaning of that word ; and people seek to 
replace the natural sun by what has been called 
1 bottled sunlight.' It is not by accident or fashion 
that the strong and heavy wines produced in the 
South find their market in the United Kingdom, 
Russia, and Scandinavia, and are eschewed in the 
sunny countries which produce them. In hotter 
countries still the natives are even more abstemious. 
In my own personal experience I always feel in a 
warm climate the converse effect to that noted in 
Scotland and Sweden : I dislike spirits. 

Climate and weather, then, have a distinct in- 
fluence in moderating or intensifying the appetite 
for intoxicating drink. It would be surprising if they 
had not, since they affect diet generally. The in- 
habitants of rigorous climes are greater eaters and 
more carnivorous, as well as greater drinkers, than 
those who live in warmer latitudes. Then I think 
race has something to do with it, though the evidence 
on this point is less clear. For instance the Hunga- 
rians are noticeably more drunken than the Austrians 
— that is, the Teutonic Austrians — notwithstanding 
the proximity of the two countries, which enjoy a 
very similar climate. Indeed, the meteorology of 



124 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

Hungary does not account for the habits of the 
people. It is cold in winter, no doubt, but not ex- 
cessively so, and the summers are long and hot. 
Moreover the dry, bracing air of the great plains is 
the very reverse of that atmospheric condition which 
we have noted as conducing to drink. Nor does 
difference of occupation account for the greater 
proneness of the Hungarians to alcoholic indulgence. 
They are a more pastoral and a less industrial 
people than the Austrians. Again, Hungary is a 
wine-growing country, and as a rule wine-producing 
countries are sober. But the Hungarians are 
spirit drinkers ; they make spirituous liquors from all 
kinds of things. For instance I have tasted there an 
excellent home-made spirit produced from walnuts 
and used as a liqueur at breakfast. That is a curious 
custom the like of which I have not seen elsewhere 
except at ' hunt breakfasts ' in England. Perhaps 
this gives the key to the problem. The Hungarians 
are a lusty, jovial race, full of energy and vigour, 
fond of sport and an outdoor life, greatly given to 
hospitality and good-fellowship. These things are 
in their blood and they go with a liking for strong 
drink. Other evidence of racial influence is afforded 
by colonial settlements and countries populated by 
immigrants. Colonists of drinking blood, such as 
Britons, Scandinavians, Slavs, and Teutons, drink 
even in hot countries, though less than at home. 
Our Australian colonies, with the exception of West 
Australia, consume considerably less alcohol per head 
than the mother country; but they drink more than 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 125 

people of other races under similar climatic condi- 
tions. Then again we have the curious fact that 
drunkenness prevails more extensively in Scotland, 
Ireland, and Wales than in England. The pro- 
portional figure in 1890-94 was 611 for England 
against 774 for Wales, which is certainly not better 
policed. Irish and Scotch figures for the same 
period are lacking, but in 1898, when England and 
Wales together reached 698, Ireland stood at 1,920 
and Scotland at 2,688. The superior capacity for 
disorder thus shown by all the Celtic countries is 
very suggestive. Climate explains it in part, no 
doubt, but race seems to come also into play. The 
only other condition which the three countries share 
in common as against England is Sunday-closing. 
Does this conduce to greater disorder by concentrating 
in one day, Saturday, the drinking capacity which in 
England is spread over two ? 

Before leaving this interesting but rather specu- 
lative question of the influence of race, I should like 
to point out what I have mentioned incidentally in a 
previous chapter — namely, that all predominant races 
are given to strong drink. The abstemious nations 
are all decadent; the progressive ones all drink. 
Energy, vigour, initiative, enterprise belong in a pre- 
eminent degree, if not exclusively, to the drinking 
races. A striking example of this coincidence is 
furnished by the two yellow races. The Chinese are 
sober and decadent, the Japanese are conspicuously 
enterprising, alert, progressive, and given to indul- 
gence in liquor. The difference between the sailors 



126 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

of the two nationalities ashore is very striking 
according to the East-end police. In England those 
northern counties which I have shown to be more 
drunken than the southern are the backbone of the 
country. The energy and enterprise of the Welsh 
are concentrated in drunken Glamorgan; drunken 
Scotland produces the most enduring, capable, and 
successful pioneers in the world; drunken Ireland is 
the mother of the quickest-witted race known to our 
age ; drunken Sweden sends out a splendid strain of 
colonists who are welcomed wherever they go. 
Compare these breeds with those of Portugal, Spain, 
South Italy, or Greece. I do not suggest that the 
former are capable because they drink, and still less 
that the more they drink the more capable they are ; 
but it is impossible to deny that racially drink and 
energy go together. Probably the meaning of it is 
that the conditions which foster vigour of mind and 
body tend also to alcoholic indulgence. The same 
people drink with vigour and do other things with 
vigour ; they have the qualities of their defects. 

A possible explanation of racial differences may be 
found in the Darwinian theory of evolution, accord- 
ing to which long exposure to the influence of alcohol 
would tend to national sobriety by weeding out the 
drunkards and leaving the more temperate, who live 
longer and transmit their moderate tendencies to their 
offspring. There is a good deal to be said for this 
theory, which has been well worked out by Dr. Arch- 
dall Reid. It is far more in consonance with established 
scientific generalisations than the opposite hypothesis 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 127 

that heredity tends to make nations more drunken. 
It is also more in consonance with the facts of experi- 
ence noted in previous chapters. Heredity is most 
certainly not making us more drunken, since we 
have been getting more sober for 150 years. Nor 
is there any evidence that the children of inebriates 
are born with a * craving ' for liquor. That is a pure 
assumption. They are born with a tendency to self- 
indulgence, and as they grow up the parental habits 
commonly afford both example and opportunity 
which determine the direction their self-indulgence 
takes. On the other hand the influence of heredity 
in promoting national sobriety is very difficult to 
prove for lack of sufficient ethnographical and 
historical knowledge. It may account in part at 
least for the superior sobriety of the South over the 
North, of the English over the Celts, of the Austrians 
over the Hungarians ; but we are not in a position to 
say with any certainty how long any of these nations 
have respectively been exposed to the selective action 
of alcohol. It has been suggested that modern 
Greeks and Italians are sober because they are the se- 
lected descendants of the Hellenes and the Romans, 
out of whose blood the taste for alcoholic excess has 
gradually been weeded. In support of this argument 
there is some evidence that the ancient inhabitants 
of Greece and Eome were more given to indulgence 
in wine than the modern ones; but the racial con- 
nection between the two is by no means certain. 
We do not know to what extent the latter can be 
regarded as the lineal descendants of the former. 



128 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

The history of drink in this country, again, hardly 
supports the theory. The influence of heredity did 
not sober the people for a great many centuries, and 
it is difficult to see why after a very long period 
of complete inactivity it should suddenly begin to 
take effect, and in a comparatively short time should 
produce a substantial change, which can moreover 
be accounted for by other influences. The strongest 
evidence in favour of the theory is furnished by the 
Jews, whose marked sobriety in the present day 
under all conditions is hard to explain in any other 
way. There is no doubt that they are racially con- 
tinuous with the ancient Jews, and numerous passages 
in the Bible suggest that the race was by no means 
so abstemious in those days. On the other hand the 
sobriety of Mahommedans and Hindoos cannot be 
explained by heredity. 

On the whole, though this question is very 
interesting, and ought always to be borne in mind, 
it is somewhat too speculative for the purposes of 
the present volume. Whatever the influence of 
heredity may be, it is only one factor among many 
in modifying the appetite for drink. It cannot 
possibly account for variations experienced by the 
same individual under different conditions, or explain 
why I like spirits in Scotland and dislike them in 
Italy. Nor does it account for the facts which 
follow. 

The next of the forces of intemperance to which 
I would draw attention is occupation, which has 
already been mentioned in passing. The Judicial 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 



129 



Statistics again furnish us with some interesting 
information on this head. The following table gives 
the proportional drunkenness for 1894 in various 
districts selected according to their character and the 
occupation of the inhabitants. 

Drunkenness per 100,000 population 



Seaports .... 


. 1,260.78 


Mining counties 


. 1,136.72 


Metropolis .... 


637.42 


Manufacturing towns 


470.08 


Pleasure towns 


289.30 


Agricultural counties: 




(1) Home Counties 


245.01 


(2) South- Western Counl 


;ies . . 209.41 


(3) Eastern Counties 


109.92 



Seaports stand apart. They are cosmopolitan in 
the first place, and, in the second, sailors live under 
peculiar conditions. They have a very hard life at 
sea, devoid of recreative and educational influences, 
but accompanied by long periods of compulsory absti- 
nence. "When they get ashore they have money in 
their pockets, and do not know how to spend it on 
anything but the lowest of pleasures. In spite of 
much that has been done for them in this country, 
they are still an exceptionally drunken class. Next 
to seaports, and only a little behind them, come the 
mining districts. There is no doubt at all, apart 
from these statistics, that the miner's occupation 
conduces to drink. The darkness and confinement 
are depressing, the heat and toil exhausting. It is 
seen not only in this country, but in France and 
Belgium, where the miners are notably given to 



130 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

drink, in comparison with other classes. In Aus- 
tralia also, the consumption of alcohol is much higher 
in the mining than in the more pastoral colonies. 
The pre-eminence of miners in alcoholic indulgence 
is not wholly due to their occupation, because good 
wages enable them to indulge their taste, but the 
life certainly tends to increase the taste. 

Then we come to the metropolis, which has not 
much more than half the drunkenness of other 
seaports; yet it is the greatest of them. As Mr. 
Troup has pointed out, the metropolis has a three- 
fold character: it is the greatest seaport, the great- 
est manufacturing town, and the greatest pleasure 
resort in the kingdom. Further, it is the seat of 
government and of the administration of justice, 
and contains a far larger proportion of the profes- 
sional and trading classes than other towns. These 
neutralise the more disorderly elements, and bring 
the metropolis out roughly at the mean of the other 
districts. 

The manufacturing towns, which follow the 
metropolis in the table, are lower than one would 
expect; but they are very much higher than the 
pleasure towns, and these again higher than the 
rural .districts. The question is complicated in the 
case of the last by the presence of other factors, 
such as inferior wages, diminished opportunities, 
and sparser policing, which are merely accidental to 
the life; but occupation has something to do with 
it. According to my experience, Hodge is not a very 
self-indulgent person, and Mrs. Hodge is decidedly 



: 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 



131 



abstemious. She does not frequent the village pub, 
which in itself makes a great deal of difference. 

Some further light is thrown on the question of 
occupation by the death-rates, which have a 
certain value for comparing one class with another 
in the same period. The following table gives the 
comparative mortality from ' alcoholism and diseases 
of the liver ' among males between twenty-five and 
sixty-five, in the three years 1890-92, all ' occupied 
males ' being taken at 100 : 



Coachman — cabman 


153 


Dock labourer 


195 


Costermonger 


163 


Chimney-sweep 


. 200 


Coalheaver 


165 


Butcher 


228 


Fishmonger . 


168 


Brewer . 


250 


Musician 


168 


Inn-servant . 


420 


Hairdresser . 


. 175 


Inn-keeper 


. 733 



This table of the most alcoholic occupations is 
very interesting. The three highest classes are 
explained by unlimited opportunities. Three others 
— namely, coalheavers, dock labourers, and hair- 
dressers — represent the occupations into which 
disorderly characters and social failures especially 
drift; they are, in fact, refuge occupations. It is 
not generally known that hairdressing is a common 
resource for men of some education and decent 
appearance who can get nothing else to do. The 
remaining classes are all to be explained by exposure 
(musicians includes street musicians) and early 
morning work. I have frequently observed the 
effect of the latter. In England the men of the 
working classes are essentially beer drinkers, except 



132 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

in the very far north. Excluding highly paid me- 
chanics, who ape the customs of the gentry, they 
never order spirits at the public-house, and do not 
take it when it is offered them, if they can have beer 
instead. But there are exceptions. Sailors, market 
porters, cabmen and 'bus-drivers are more or less 
spirit drinkers. The reason is obvious. These men 
are either greatly exposed to the weather, or they do 
night work, or they get up very early in the morning. 
The men employed at Smithfield are particularly 
hard drinkers as a class. Their work is excessively 
early and very trying, and there is something in the 
handling of a great deal of raw meat which causes 
depression, and engenders a desire for spirits. 

St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which is immediately 
opposite the market, knows these men well. They 
are constantly coming to the surgery with cuts and 
other injuries, caused by accident or fighting, and 
they make very ' bad subjects.' The men of 
Billingsgate and Covent Garden, whose work begins 
at an extremely early hour, are also spirit drinkers. 
Among professional men doctors are most frequently 
given to intemperance. The cause is the same — 
night-work and exposure. They seek relief from 
the cardiac depression caused by interrupted sleep, 
irregular meals, fatigue, cold and wet; they find it 
most readily in stimulants, and with some the 
practice leads gradually to habitual excess. The most 
intemperate female occupations are cooking and 
laundry work ; heat and exhaustion cause a ' sinking. ' 

To continue the death-rates, occupied males stand 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 133 

at thirteen, but in industrial districts the figure is 
nineteen, in agricultural ones only seven. Clergy- 
men come at the bottom of the list with two, a clear 
proof of the influence of moral self-control. They 
are only equalled by engine-drivers and stokers, who 
are compelled to be abstemious by the conditions of 
their employment. Fishermen are next with three. 
Self-preservation enforces sobriety at sea, and they 
are but little ashore. Then we have farm labourers 
and gardeners, who are undoubtedly a very sober 
class; there seems to be something about work on 
the soil which has a non-alcoholic tendency. The 
figure for farmers is six, which is also very low. 
Kailwaymen other than those on locomotives stand 
at five, which again is explained by the work. 
Strict supervision and regularity are absolutely 
necessary for railway work. Of professional men 
the lowest, next to clergymen, are schoolmasters, 
with eight. Barristers and solicitors rise to twelve, 
which is nearly the average of occupied males. 
Doctors are above that average. The figure for 
unoccupied males is twenty-three, which is nearly 
double that of the occupied. Idleness is a powerful 
ally of intemperance. After this we come to the 
more drunken classes, which have already been dealt 
with. 

The foregoing observations on climate and occu- 
pation must be taken in a broad sense, and with due 
regard to other qualifying conditions. But these 
factors should always be borne in mind when argu- 
ments are drawn from one country or one section 



134 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

of the population and applied to others differently 
situated, with different habits and different needs. 

I pass on to another class of conditions in- 
fluencing intemperance. It is often said that the 
working classes are driven to drink by their con- 
ditions of life and the absence of other pleasures. 
These are factors, no doubt, but not, in my opinion, 
of the first importance. They do not make people 
intemperate in non-drinking countries, and the most 
improved conditions do not keep them sober in drink- 
ing ones. The most squalid and miserable homes are 
the effect, not the cause, of drink, though of course 
the effect reacts upon the cause in a vicious circle. 
Why do men frequent the public-house ? The answer, 
given me by a working man in a public-house, 
cannot be improved. ' They come/ he said, \ for 
the pipe, the company, and the glass of beer.' It is 
true, but the sting is in the tail. They like the 
combination, but the essential item is the glass of 
beer. They can and do get the pipe and the com- 
pany elsewhere, and more comfortably than in the 
public-house, which is the most uncomfortable 
place it is possible to enter. The sole advantage it 
enjoys is the glass of beer; but that is sufficient. 
Without it the other things do not satisfy. There- 
fore the public-house and the club flourish, but the 
coffee tavern languishes. Furthermore the pipe 
and the company are available in the public-house 
without the glass of beer, if that is your pleasure. 
You may order a glass of ginger beer or just nothing 
at all, Experto crede. I speak of the urban public- 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 135 

house frequented by working men; the village inn, 
where the company is sparser, known to the land- 
lord and personally looked after by him, has a 
somewhat different code. Lastly, the supreme 
claim of the glass of beer in shown by the fact that 
many customers come for that and nothing more. 
When they have had it they leave, to go elsewhere, 
or hang about outside, talking and smoking, until 
the time comes for another glass. The provision of 
other places of resort devoid of this attraction will 
not ruin the public-house. The effective rival is 
the club, where the indispensable glass can also be 
obtained. How indispensable it is may be made 
clear by observing the habits of working men in 
regard to their amusements. Means of recreation 
have multiplied very rapidly of late years; there are 
theatres, music-halls, football matches, and so on 
in every town, and they are Frequented to an 
astonishing extent. But an integral part of the 
entertainment is a periodical adjournment to the bar 
or the nearest public-house. Therefore I say that the 
absence of such amusements is not one of the most 
important ' forces of intemperance. ' Nevertheless, 
improved conditions of life, recreations, reading- 
rooms, public libraries, and all institutions of this 
kind do help towards sobriety, as I have said in the 
last chapter. I should be sorry indeed to decry 
them, and only want to put them in their true 
perspective. They act in two ways: first, educa- 
tionally, by helping to form a higher standard of 
conduct; and secondly, by abstracting a certain 



136 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

amount of time from the public-house. A good 
deal of intemperance occurs merely by accumulation, 
and anything which tends to diminish the time 
actually devoted to glasses of beer tends in some 
degree to lessen their number. 

Hospitality and conviviality used to be much 
greater allies of intemperance than they are now. 
The proverbial ' flowing bowl ' was the sign and seal 
of good-fellowship. People met together and the 
bottle went round as a matter of course. Drinking 
healths was invented to serve as an excuse for more 
liquor. The practice originated with the hard- 
drinking barbarians of the north. In polite society 
it has become a mere formality and an exceedingly 
dreary one, because it is associated with speeches; 
but some relics remain to indicate what it used to 
be. At some colleges in the old universities the head, 
or whoever presides at the high table, still takes a 
glass of wine with guests, and probably the custom 
lingers elsewhere. Once it was the duty of every 
host to take frequent glasses with his guests. In 
Sweden it is still the custom at a dinner party for 
every person to drink at least one glass with every 
other and exchange a shall! In Hungary one simi- 
larly drinks Jo egeszsegere! or Eljen a Tiaza! and 
clinks glasses with great vigour. Festivals are con- 
vivial occasions, and, as I have remarked in a previous 
chapter, they have always been associated with 
drunkenness. Christmas and New Year's Day are 
still the most drunken moments of the year in 
England and Scotland respectively. The close con- 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 137 

nection between conviviality and intemperance is 
seen to perfection in Scotland on New Year's Day 
or after the annual ' Games ' in the Highlands. 
Every man carries a whisky bottle and offers it to 
every one else, so that each drinks out of all the 
other bottles. Drink, again, is the essential feature 
of the Irish wake and the English East-end funeral, 
which are both great domestic festivals. Then there 
is the wedding ' breakfast/ another vanishing relic 
of the past. Christenings also used to be celebrated 
by the consumption of much liquor, but the vogue 
seems to have died out. 

The modern tendency to moderation is seen in 
nothing more plainly than in the curtailment of 
convivial drinking, which is no longer carried to 
intoxication among the upper classes. Where in- 
temperance exists it is more often a solitary and 
secret vice. People still expect a glass of wine at 
dinner, and that is indeed a sorry feast from which 
it is banished; but they know when to stop. This 
undeniable fact contains the answer of self-respecting 
mankind to the teetotal doctrine. Good-fellowship is 
a great thing — a greater thing than sobriety — and 
it is markedly promoted by the moderate use of 
alcohol when men gather together for social inter- 
course and enjoyment, as at the marriage feast in 
Cana of Galilee. In that example, which no con- 
troversialist has yet been able to explain away, 
the most conscientious may find a sanction for using 
this gift of God. The attempt to banish it from 
the social table is an implied insult. Professor 



138 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

Blackie once put the case in characteristic fashion. 
He took the chair, by request, at a temperance 
meeting, and caused no little consternation by 
roundly declaring that a man who asked him to 
dinner and did not give him a good glass of wine 
was, in his opinion, ' neither a gentleman nor a 
Christian. ' 

The custom of using without abusing is gradually 
filtering down the social strata, and with it convi- 
viality is ceasing to be a force of intemperance; 
but it is still responsible for a rather serious form 
of abuse. I mean the habit of making a chance 
meeting of acquaintances or the conclusion of 
some mutual business the occasion for exchanging 
drinks, which neither party wants, as a mere con- 
ventional sign of friendship or good will. It is 
mainly responsible for the practice of drinking 
between meals, which is apt to lead to chronic in- 
temperance, and is really much more injurious than 
an occasional orgy on high days and holidays. 

We pass on to the question of facilities and 
temptation, which is the great battlefield of 
temperance controversy. To some facilities are 
everything, to others nothing. The truth, as usual, 
lies in the middle. In drunken countries the un- 
limited multiplication of opportunities has always 
led to a disastrous state of things. Instances have 
been given from past experience in this country. In 
the eighteenth century, when drink was cheap, 
houses excessively numerous and always open, the 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 139 

result was — Gin Alley. Sweden and Norway were 
in the same state before the passing of restrictive 
legislation. To use Dr. Sigfrid Wieselgren's some- 
what rhetorical language — ' the very marrow of the 
nation was sapped; moral and physical degradation, 
insanity, poverty and crime, family ties broken up, 
brutal habits — all those grim legions that ever range 
themselves under the banner of intemperance — took 
possession of the land. It was bleeding at every 
pore, yet seemed unwilling to be healed/ The late 
Mr. Willerding, of Gothenburg, described to me in 
less high-flown, but much more convincing terms, 
the precise physical aspect of the people at the 
time when the sale of branvin was practically un- 
limited, and I recognised in his account an accurate 
description of persons sodden in spirits — swollen 
in body, with pallid, blotched, and bloated faces, 
trembling hands and feeble gait. With the diminished 
consumption of branvin under the new laws they 
had gradually disappeared. The effects of free 
licensing under the Duke of Wellington's Beer-house 
Act and of the all-night opening, in the days before 
hours of closing were fixed, have been already men- 
tioned. Then we have the experience of Liverpool, 
which tried free licensing during the four years 
1862-65. Licenses were granted to all persons 
applying for them, provided they were of good 
character and had suitable premises. The number 
of fully licensed houses increased during the period 
by 370, or 23 per cent. The number of persons 



140 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



proceeded against for drunkenness also increased 
thus: 



Persons proceeded 
against 

. . . 9,829 



Year 
1858 

1859 11,037 

1860 10,963 

1861 9,832 



Persons proceeded 
Year against 

1862 12,076 

1863 13,914 

1864 14,002 

1865 13,922 



In 1866 the authorities abandoned the experi- 
ment. It is said that it did not have a fair trial, and 
perhaps it did not; but so far as it went the result 
was bad. The police, who are responsible for 
public order, are unanimous on the effect of exces- 
sive facilities. The numerous Blue-books in which 
their official evidence is recorded are strewn with the 
opinions of the most experienced men, who agree 
that when the number of public-houses is too great 
to permit of effective supervision disorder ensues. 
The question, indeed, does not admit of argument. 
Eestriction and regulation were originally intro- 
duced in this country and elsewhere because of the 
rampant disorder connected with unlimited facilities, 
and the benefit of successive restrictions has been 
attested over and over again. The wholly dispro- 
portionate death-rates among inn-keepers and inn- 
servants point to the same conclusion. 

It is, however, a very serious mistake to infer that 
intemperance is directly proportionate to the number 
of public-houses, and that the fewer there are of the 
latter the less there will be of the former. This 
opinion is held by a great many temperance workers, 
to whom it seems self-evident; but it is quite falla- 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 141 

cious. If they studied the habits of the people more 
at first hand, they would find out the mistake. It 
arises from attaching too much importance to the 
influence of temptation. Drunkards constantly put 
forward the plea of temptation as an excuse, and a 
moving picture has hence been drawn of some poor 
fellow battling against his weakness and resolutely 
passing five public-houses only to break down at the 
sixth. I am afraid the battling of this person and 
his painful surrender to the last assault of the devil 
are quite imaginary. He may pass five houses and go 
into the sixth, but it is because he knows there is a 
sixth. If there were only one he would go into that. 
The geographical distribution of licenses and 
police drunkenness shows that there is no propor- 
tional relation between them. The Eeport of the 
Peel Commission gives some facts on this head. 
Fifteen counties are taken and divided into two 
groups, A and B, the former containing the largest 
number of licenses in proportion to the population 
and the latter the smallest number. The counties 
are — (A) Buckingham, Bedford, Cambridge, Isle of 
Ely, Hertford, Huntingdon, Shropshire, and Stafford- 
shire; (B) Cheshire, Cornwall, Devonshire, Dur- 
ham, Northumberland, Lancashire, Glamorgan. The 
distribution of licenses and drunkenness is as 
follows : 

' ' Per 100,000 

j Average licenses 609 

j Average drunkenness 492 

j Average licenses 362 

( Average drunkenness 892 



142 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

It is suggested that the remarkable discrepancy 
here shown may be explained away by differences of 
police procedure. I have already (p. 58) dealt with 
that extremely convenient way of disposing of awk- 
ward facts, and have given reasons for attaching much 
more value to the police returns, as a real index of 
the prevalence of drunkenness, than is allowed by 
the somewhat disingenuous argument alluded to. 
In any case it does not dispose of this question, for 
we have the evidence of the Chief Constable of Lan- 
cashire, who found that the same discrepancy exists 
in his own district, which is all under the same 
police procedure. ' I took the trouble to go into the 
details in Lancashire on that point and I found out 
that where the most houses are there is less drunken- 
ness ' (vol. i, p. 394). An examination of the re- 
turns for Scottish towns shows a similar state of 
things (vol. vi, p. 398) . So, too in France. The prov- 
ince of Finisterre has always had fewer houses and 
more drunkenness than the rest of France (Leroy). 

The broad meaning of all this is, no doubt, that 
other factors are more important in determining the 
habits of the people than temptation in the form 
of public-houses. Personal observation corroborates 
that conclusion. If a man does not want to drink, 
fifty public-houses do not tempt him; if he does, 
one is enough. Some reformers take this view and 
draw the conclusion that the complete abolition of 
temptation by the suppression of all public-houses 
will alone meet the case. Perhaps it would if temp- 
tation were an important factor, but I cannot insist 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 143 

too often and too strongly that it is not. People do 
not drink because the publican spreads his wares 
before them, but because they like drink and mean to 
get it. All experience proves that in drinking coun- 
tries deficiency of regular opportunities is a still 
greater force of intemperance than excess, because it 
drives people to make for themselves irregular oppor- 
tunities, which are not subject to supervision and 
control. This point is reached far short of suppres- 
sion, as we see at the present time in the multipli- 
cation of drinking clubs. There is abundant evidence 
on the subject in the minutes of the Peel Commis- 
sion; but I may quote a more recent investigation. 
In his book on ' Poverty ' Mr. B. Seebohm Rown- 
tree tells us that in the city of York there is one 
1 on '-license to every 330 persons, which is consider- 
ably above the average proportion in the large 
and medium-sized towns, and therefore ' excessive.' 
Nevertheless the working-class population supports 
five political clubs, where drink is sold, and nine 
others which ' exist primarily for the purpose of pro- 
viding drinking facilities.' Two of the latter are in 
a very poor part of the city and are largely frequented 
by Irish labourers. 

1 The police state that beer is taken into the clubs 
in quantities of several barrels at a time, and that 
much drunkenness occurs in them. Drunken men 
have been seen through the windows of one of these 
clubs lying on the wooden forms, but the members 
are careful not to allow any one to leave the club until 
he is sober enough to escape the risk of a summons 
for being drunk in the streets. Often members will 



144 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

remain in the club through the night and even from 
Saturday until Monday. ' x 

The balance-sheet of one of the other clubs showed 
an expenditure of 1,612Z. on intoxicating drink in the 
year. The number of men entering the club during 
the hours it was open on Sunday, August 12, 1900, 
was counted. There were 601, of whom 248 brought 
out drink in jugs and bottles. 

This little glimpse into what happens under the 
present comparatively mild restrictions, and in a 
place provided with ' excessive ' facilities, is pro- 
foundly instructive. The multiplication of clubs is 
probably due to the fact that in the newer parts of 
the town, where the industrial classes chiefly reside, 
very few licenses have been granted. The people 
have evaded an irksome social law, as they always 
do and always will, and have created their own 
facilities, which are much more harmful than those 
which the law has refused them. Nor is it possible 
ever to prevent natural appetites from having their 
way. If clubs are regulated in such a manner that 
regulation is too irksome, evasion will merely take 
some other and probably still more objectionable 
form. In the last resort people would supply them- 
selves with drink, for alcohol can be manufactured 
from anything containing sugar or starch. 

The general conclusion on this branch of the 
subject is that both numerical excess and deficiency 
of opportunities promote intemperance in drinking 

1 Poverty, by B. Seebohm Rowntree: supplementary chapter, 
p. 327. 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 145 

countries, the one by rendering supervision inefficient, 
the other by fostering clandestine traffic, which es- 
capes supervision altogether. As to what constitutes 
excess the police are the proper judges. They have 
to supervise the traffic in the interests of public order, 
and they know when the task is beyond them. I 
should be guided by the chief constable of a town or 
district. If he found that the number of licensed 
houses was too great for effective supervision, I 
should reduce them. On the other hand numerical 
deficiency is disclosed by the appearance and multi- 
plication of drinking clubs or by still more clandes- 
tine methods of evasion. 

So much for numerical opportunities. The same 
principles apply broadly to time opportunities, but 
the grounds are somewhat different. I attach the 
utmost importance to hours of closing, and am con- 
vinced that no controllable factor has so great an 
influence on intemperance. That conclusion is the 
result of observation, corroborated by abundant his- 
torical evidence. Unlimited hours used to have a 
disastrous effect in this country, and successive re- 
strictions have been uniformly successful, with the 
exception of total closing on Sunday, which has given 
rise to considerable, though perhaps temporary, 
trouble in large towns. The complete control of 
hours is the most practical and solid advantage per- 
taining to the Gothenburg system. I know a public- 
house in London, much frequented by a disorderly 
class of customers, which is voluntarily closed early 
in the afternoon on bank holidays, because the 



146 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

publican finds it impossible to maintain order if the 
house remains open all day. The reason why long 
and late hours conduce to intemperance is that some 
customers go on drinking after they have had enough, 
merely to pass the time. The last hour before closing 
is the drunkard's hour. 

Much stress is often laid on certain other features 
of the public-house as the cause or occasion of ex- 
cessive drinking. The gas-lights in the window, 
swing doors, opaque glass, the arrangement of the 
premises— such as several entrances, the division into 
compartments, ' long bars ' and ' snugs ' — are all 
credited with an important influence. Numerous 
witnesses gave evidence to that effect before the 
Peel Commission. Such opinions are based on a 
limited experience. People see a great deal of drink- 
ing carried on in the town or district where they live, 
and naturally enough attribute it to the conditions 
there prevailing. If their observations were more 
extended they would find that the habits of the 
people are just the same under entirely different 
conditions. I have made a study of these things for 
several years in all parts of this country and in other 
countries, and I cannot find that the form of the 
premises makes any difference whatever, with the 
exception of back doors opening into yards and 
other similar arrangements, which make supervision 
difficult and facilitate evasion of the law with regard 
to prohibited hours and serving drunken persons. 
People do not frequent the public-house for the sake of 
the lights in the window, or because the doors swing 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 147 

and there are several of them, but to get something 
to drink; and they seek it just as readily in those 
establishments which have an inconspicuous exterior, 
no lights in the window, only one door and that not 
a swinging one, as in the ' flaring gin-palace.' The 
Company houses under the Gothenburg system are 
carefully denuded of all adventitious attractions, but 
they are nevertheless far more thronged with cus- 
tomers in the busy hours than the rival free beer- 
houses, simply because the men want spirits, which 
they can only get at the Company's houses, and they 
will go anywhere to get what they want. Surely the 
history of the bona fide traveller is a sufficient proof 
of that. The decoration of public-houses is not a new 
thing, as I have shown. It merely keeps pace with 
the general movement towards greater size, elabora- 
tion, and display in shops, offices, and other buildings. 
It is chiefly confined to the main thoroughfares of 
places much frequented by visitors and chance cus- 
tomers, and consequently it makes a show out of all 
proportion to its importance. The great bulk of the 
liquor trade depends not on chance but on regular 
customers, who know where to go and care nothing 
for exteriors. This is especially true of hard drinkers. 
In the most drunken parts of the country — Scotland, 
Ireland, and the North of England — public-houses 
are nearly always plain and inconspicuous; and 
those which conduce most to intemperance elsewhere 
are of the same character. As for the interior 
it is absolutely immaterial whether there are ' long 
bars ' or ' snugs ' — which are the exact opposites of 



148 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

each other — compartments or bar parlours, ' perpen- 
dicular ' drinking or seats. 

Then there is the question of providing food and 
non-intoxicants, which is also considered of great 
importance. It may be disposed of very briefly. 
Publicans provide what their customers ask for. 
When and where food and non-intoxicants are 
demanded they are supplied. I have obtained tea 
and food at pothouses where they have never been 
asked for before. After all, the publican's object is 
to make money, not to sell beer, and if he can make 
it by selling anything else he will. The demand for 
other things has markedly increased in recent years, 
and the supply is keeping pace. Obviously it is no 
use supplying things that no one wants. The belief 
that the working man would find his way to the 
coffee tavern if his eyes were not dazzled by the 
lights of the l gin palace, ' and that when allured into 
that abode of misery he would fain have a cup of 
tea or a bottle of lemonade if the publican did not 
force beer down his reluctant throat, is an amiable 
delusion arising out of the temptation fallacy and 
based on total ignorance of the working man's habits 
and tastes and of the conduct of the retail liquor trade. 
The working man knows exactly what he wants, and 
he goes to a certain place to get it. I have just 
mentioned the bona fide traveller. He was invented 
on the temptation theory. It was believed that 
persons would not travel six miles — three out and 
three back — merely to get a drink. We know now 
that numbers habitually walk that distance for no 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 149 

other purpose; and if it were doubled they would 
still go. Until reformers and legislators make some 
attempt to rid their minds of cant, and realise the 
deep devotion of our people to beer, they will continue 
to prepare disappointment for themselves and vain 
trouble for the police. 

Opportunity in the form of purchasing power has 
an important influence on the volume of intemper- 
ance. I have mentioned the effect of trade so often 
that I must apologise for returning to it once more, 
but my list of forces would be very incomplete 
without it. The typical period of prosperity was 
1868-74. Exports of British produce rose in 
value from 180 to 256 millions sterling. The chart 
on the next page shows graphically the effect on 
consumption and police drunkenness. 

The diagram must be read broadly. The 
drunkenness curve is not proportionally comparable 
to those of consumption, because it gives the 
absolute number of persons without reference to 
increase of population, whereas the consumption is 
reckoned per head. Moreover a disturbing factor 
was introduced in 1872 by the Licensing Act, which 
created new offences and so caused a sudden increase 
in the returns. Broadly, however, it shows well 
enough the influence of great prosperity as a force 
of intemperance. Any number of diagrams might 
be given to illustrate the same thing. Declining 
trade is faithfully reflected by downward curves. 
For instance the years 1885-7 were years of great 
depression. In the winter, it may be remembered, 



150 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 





1868 


1869 


1870 


1871 


1872 


1873 


1874 


GALLONS 
34 
















33 
















32 
















31- 




CONSl 


JMPTIO 


N OF 








30 




BEER 


PER H 


EAD j 








29. 
















20 
















GALLONS 
1.2 

1 V 




CONS 
SPIRl 


UMPTIC 
T PER 


)N OF 
HEAD 






. 


1.0 

.99 
98 
















.97 
.96 
95 
















Persons proceded 

against 

for drunkenness 

180.000 
















170,000 
















160,000 
















150,000 




DRU 


NKENN 


ESS 








140,000 


• 














130,000 
















120,000 
















110,000 























THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 151 

the unemployed used to parade the streets. The 
consumption of beer, which had been 34 gallons a 
head in 1874, fell to 26.9 gallons, and that of spirits 
from 1.26 gallon to .93 gallon; at the same time 
police drunkenness dropped from 812 to 636 per 
100,000. These facts corroborate the view that the 
expenditure on drink is, broadly speaking, voluntary 
and deliberate. When people can afford it they 
gratify their tastes in this way; when they cannot 
they go without. 

The converse aspect of this law is the depend- 
ence of consumption on the price of liquor, which is 
very clearly shown by the effect of the various 
changes in the spirit duty. In 1825 the duty in 
England was lowered from lis. 8ld. to Is. and the 
consumption rose from 7 million to nearly 13 
million gallons. In 1830 the duty was raised Qd. 
throughout the United Kingdom and consumption 
fell a million gallons. In 1854 the duty was again 
raised Is. 4cZ. in Scotland and 8d. in Ireland; con- 
sumption dropped 4| million gallons, but this was 
partly due to new closing regulations. In 1860 a 
rise of 25. all round caused consumption to fall by 
3 million gallons. At the same time the lowering of 
the duty on wine increased the consumption from 
6f million to 10f million gallons. These cases will 
suffice to show the bearing of direct fiscal changes 
on the drink question. It is a point that is fre- 
quently lost sight of in reckoning the consumption 
of alcohol and the conditions that influence it. No 
doubt drink would not stand an unlimited amount 



152 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

of taxation, and too heavy an impost would merely 
force illicit traffic; but short of that it is possible 
indirectly to exercise considerable control over con- 
sumption. 

The acquisition of drinking habits by children is 
a force of intemperance which has attracted much 
attention. Legislative attempts have been made to 
check it by prohibiting the sale of drink to persons 
under a certain age; and these measures are benefi- 
cial with the exception of the latest enactment, which 
prohibits children under fourteen from acting as 
messengers. The sequel of this law is an instructive 
comment on legislation without knowledge. Its 
promoters were severely disappointed by the action 
of the House of Commons in preserving the right to 
sell liquor to child messengers in sealed bottles. 
This was regarded as a concession to the trade emas- 
culating the measure and depriving it of all value. 
What has happened? The trade itself has negatived 
the concession and decided not to supply children 
under fourteen at all. The reason is obvious. It will 
save the publican trouble and draw more profitable 
customers to the house. Of all persons who visit it 
child messengers get the least harm, and the younger 
they are the less harm they get. The place has no 
attraction for them; they only go because they are 
sent, and they leave it as quickly as possible. To 
older persons it is attractive and they linger there. 
The assumption that children learn to drink from 
being sent to the public-house is supported by no 
evidence, and from my own observation I believe it 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 153 

to be quite erroneous. The real evil, which is very- 
great and peculiar to this country, lies in the practice 
of taking children to the public-house, keeping them 
there, and giving them drink. It arises from that 
mistaken kindness, so characteristic of uneducated 
parents, which prompts them to share with their 
children whatever they have themselves. Thus the 
young ones are taught to drink at an age when if 
left alone they would not touch liquor. Naturally 
children do not like beer and detest spirits; what 
they really love is sweets, which do not go with 
liquor. Some publicans have been in the habit of 
giving sweets to child messengers, and the practice 
has been solemnly held up to reprobation, apparently 
in the belief that children, attracted by the bait, go 
off to fetch beer on their own responsibility. Of 
course they do nothing of the kind, and the effect 
of sweets was merely to determine the choice 
between the Eed Lion and the Blue Boar; but inci- 
dentally they formed a perfect safeguard against 
sipping from the jug on the way home, for no child 
with sweets in its mouth would have a thought left 
for beer. It would have served temperance better to 
have let things alone. Now adults or older boys and 
girls at the most dangerous age will go to the public- 
house instead of children, and will often stop there, 
or else a new traffic will be created by the systematic 
delivery of liquor at home. And meantime the real 
source of juvenile intemperance is left untouched. 
Fortunately it is being cured by education. The 
practice of taking children to the public-house and 



154 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

giving them drink is much less common than "it 
was. 

I have now reviewed the main conditions that 
make for intemperance, but behind them is that 
intangible force called public opinion and discussed 
in the last chapter. As there is a public opinion 
which makes for temperance, so there is one which 
makes for intemperance. Indulgence , to excess 
flourishes where it is regarded with indulgence, 
as it is in this country. That may seem a hard 
saying to some readers, but I think if they will re- 
flect they will admit its truth. The law reproves 
drunkenness in a mild way, but a certain kind of 
public sentiment rather encourages it. The drunkard 
is never made to feel that he has committed a serious 
offence. In fact his offence is not considered serious. 
He is pitied a great deal and punished very little. 
Everybody, except the publican who chucks him 
mercilessly into the street, is in a conspiracy to pro- 
tect him from the consequences of his own conduct. 
A man lies drunk where he runs a risk of being run 
over, or he is lurching about and likely to fall into 
water or into some dangerous spot. Everybody 
lends him a helping hand out of danger and even 
assists him to get home. He is an object of sym- 
pathy mingled with some contempt; but the con- 
tempt does not hurt him, while the sympathy is prac- 
tical. It is practical encouragement. He lives to 
get drunk another day, and with a well-founded con- 
viction that when next ' overcome ' some friendly 
hand will take care that he comes to no hurt. If he 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 155 

commits a crime or misdemeanour, drunkenness is 
confidently pleaded as an excuse. It is frequently 
accepted in mitigation by the Bench, and rarely fails 
to touch the sympathy of the public. The ' poor 
fellow ' did not know what he was doing; he meant 
no harm; he bears an excellent character when 
sober, and so on. As the subject of jokes drunken- 
ness is the chief stock-in-trade of many humorists; 
some comic papers live on it. They hold it up to 
ridicule, but always with an indulgent smile. The 
more hypocritical criminals habitually allege that they 
i fell through drink ' in order to commend themselves 
to the philanthropic, who accept this miserable and 
generally false excuse and burn with zeal against the 
iniquitous liquor traffic. Not long ago a wretched 
youth who finished a career of habitual self-indul- 
gence by murdering an old woman for money wrote 
a farewell letter to his family, embodying with sin- 
gular naivete the current doctrine of irresponsibility. 

1 It looks to me as I am born unlucky, for I have 
never been able to get on. I have had good chances 
in my life, but that cursed drink has been my down- 
fall, and I hope the other boys will not make it a 
practice to spend their time in the public-house, but 
do as you bid them to.' 

It is not his fault, observe; he is not to blame. 
He was ' born unlucky ' yet had l good chances. ' He 
did not throw them away : it was the ' cursed drink ' 
that was his l downfall.' In the mind of this youth 
we see the working of the theory of temptation. 
The ' cursed drink ' is his excuse. That stereotyped 



156 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

phrase relieves him of all responsibility for a life 
admittedly spent in self-indulgence and crime. 
When brought to the gallows he is sorry, but clears 
himself by denouncing the inanimate instrument of 
his vice. As well may the glutton denounce food, 
the extravagant woman blame silk and velvet, or the 
spendthrift attribute his ruin to the trades which 
have supplied him with costly luxuries. The plea is 
not made in their case, and if made would be ridiculed. 
The drunkard has learned to make it from the con- 
fused teachings of those ' temperance ' reformers who 
do not see that to minimise the moral responsibility 
of the vicious is to encourage vice. 

Let me quote a healthier sentiment from those 
who know the drunkard as he is. 

1 At a meeting of the Medico-Psychological Asso- 
ciation of Great Britain in Edinburgh, Dr. Wilson, 
superintendent of the Mavisbank Asylum, Midlothian, 
read a paper on " The Mismanagement of Drunk- 
ards." He said he would like to see a clause in the 
Habitual Drunkards Bill, then before Parliament, 
which would provide for the flogging of drunkards, 
under appropriate and necessary supervision. The 
notion of heredity did nothing to help the drunkard, 
but everything to injure him. The latter felt he 
was compelled to give way to drink. A young man 
so influenced should be flogged within an inch of 
his life, every time he took drink. Another excuse 
used with great effect by the drunkard was the myth 
of a crave for alcohol. The crave was a very excep- 
tional thing. The appropriate treatment for the 
alcoholic crave was a good blistering and the ap- 
plication of plasters, and he would guarantee that 
there would be no craving in Scotland for the next 



THE FORCES OF INTEMPERANCE 157 

five years. Drunkards were inveterate idlers, who 
had to be taught to work ; they were untruthful, slan- 
derers, and intensely selfish. 

* Dr. Clouston, superintendent of the Morningside 
Asylum, Edinburgh, said they had too long been sub- 
jected to mawkish sentimentalism. Every man who 
became a disgraceful inebriate had passed through a 
stage at which he might have been saved by the appli- 
cation of such treatment as Dr. Wilson advocated. ' 

I have some more observations to make on the 
drunkard in the chapters on l The Public-house ' and 
' Habitual Inebriates, ' and will here merely commend 
the views of these able and experienced observers to 
the reader as a set-off against the doctrines of tempta- 
tion and craving which have been preached so long 
to the encouragement of the self-indulgent. 

We have the drunkards we deserve. 



158 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



CHAPTER VII 

THE PRINCIPLES OF LIQUOR LEGISLATION 

We are now in a position to focus the facts and 
considerations contained in the previous chapters 
into some lessons bearing on the practical question 
of legislation. We have seen that intemperance has 
always prevailed in this country; that it has been 
much worse in the past than it is now; that various 
forces, of which legislation is one, have gone towards 
improvement; and that various others remain which 
oppose it. What, then, can be done to further the 
process of improvement already in progress? What 
part should legislation play in it? 

There are two extreme schools of thought, whose 
views may be noticed to clear the ground before 
answering these questions. The one maintains that 
legislation has no right to interfere with personal 
liberty at all in this matter, and that all liquor laws 
are merely mischievous; the other that our existing 
laws have all failed completely because they do not 
interfere enough, that the evil is getting rapidly 
worse, and that far more drastic remedies must be 
applied. Having failed to prevent excessive drinking, 
they propose to prevent drinking altogether. 



THE PRINCIPLES OF LIQUOR LEGISLATION 159 

The argument of individual liberty would be 
valid, if it were not for the drunkard. I have the 
most absolute right to interfere with him, because 
he interferes with me. It is the same right that 
entitles the community to interfere with the criminal. 
Both are nuisances, and for my own part I prefer 
the criminal. I can protect myself against him in 
various ways, but from the drunkard there is no 
escape. He lurches up against me in the street, he 
wants to embrace or fight me in the train, he terrifies 
my wife and children, while I am taxed to pay for 
his. His conduct gives the community a right to 
make any laws which are likely to repress him without 
unduly interfering with the liberty of other and un- 
offending individuals. Such regulation of the liquor 
traffic as falls within this definition is both lawful 
and expedient. 

The answer to the other school is that the 
drastic legislation they advocate does not fall within 
the definition, and that their premises are erroneous. 
Other measures have not wholly failed, and the evil 
is not getting worse. But failure to carry out 
comparatively mild laws is a curious argument for 
enacting severe ones ; for in a free country laws are 
carried out just in so far as they accord with public 
sentiment. When mild ones are evaded or slackly 
administered, what chance is there for severe ones 
which would infringe the rights of unoffending in- 
dividuals ? 

Turning from this counsel of despair, reformers, 
I think, may find both encouragement and enlighten- 



160 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

ment in the lessons of the past. Some measures 
have failed, but others have succeeded, in part at 
least. It is possible to succeed again; but how? 
Obviously when fresh legislation is contemplated in 
such a thorny and intricate business as this, some 
guide is wanted to steer a way through the pitfalls 
on every side. Some test is needed to distinguish 
between the courses offered to the Legislature in 
order to avoid futile and mischievous steps and to 
ensure real advance. In other words, it is necessary 
to lay down some principles. 

It is a surprising thing that hitherto no attempt 
has been made to formulate any such principles. 
No question, except finance, has so long, so generally, 
and so persistently engaged the attention of legis- 
latures; none has been the subject of more 
experiments; none has been more discussed and 
investigated. One would have expected some 
generalisations to have been made about it ere this; 
but the very latest official investigation, devised 
upon the largest scale and entrusted with an inquiry 
of the broadest scope, spent some three years on it 
without even betraying the slightest consciousness 
that there might be any such thing as a principle in- 
volved. It is not for lack of material. We have 
in this country an experience of several centuries, 
during which the Legislature has repeatedly tackled 
the liquor question, and hammered and tinkered at 
it, mainly in one direction. In other countries we 
have every conceivable experiment in other directions 
spread out for our edification. Surely some general 



THE PRINCIPLES OF LIQUOR LEGISLATION 161 

lessons can be drawn from all this mass of material 
which would raise the question a little out of the 
chaotic confusion surrounding it and keep it from 
being so often the sport of theory, assumption, 
sentiment, passion, prejudice, and self-interest. The 
Peel Commission gave no help. It merely took up 
one point after another, without any plan or order, 
found them all in an unsatisfactory state, and 
proposed a long and promiscuous list of amendments, 
based on no principle and sometimes inconsistent. 
There is nothing to show that these proposals 
would not repeat past blunders or would produce 
any more satisfactory results. What we want to 
know is : How far and why measures have succeeded 
or failed; what makes the difference between 
good and bad legislation ; what law can do and what 
it can not. I venture to offer some suggestions towards 
the elucidation of these questions. 

"What are the essential functions of the law? 
To preserve order, to maintain justice, and to protect 
the community. Magistrates are ' Justices of the 
Peace.' It is not the function of the law to make 
people good. Whenever it tries to do that it fails. 
The attempt has often been made to deal with various 
forms of vicious self-indulgence; to abolish ex- 
travagance, for instance, by sumptuary laws; to 
suppress idleness, prostitution, gambling, and betting ; 
and the sole result has been to bring the law into 
contempt. Moral evils can only be effectually com- 
bated by moral agencies. The law can properly 
deal with them in so far as they constitute a public 



162 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

nuisance and a cause of disorder. It does so, in fact, 
with a certain amount of success. That is the 
principle on which gambling and prostitution are 
dealt with in western communities. The imperfect 
success attending this modest aim significantly marks 
the limit of practicable interference with natural 
appetites. When pushed beyond it the result is 
failure, and worse than failure, through the dis- 
inclination and corruption of the executive. Some 
forms of vice, such as gluttony, avarice, and idleness, 
cannot be touched at all, because they do not infringe 
public order and decency. Indirectly, indeed, the 
law can sometimes encourage or discourage vicious 
courses, but its direct interference is limited to the 
point at which public ' tranquillity,' as the French 
code has it, is threatened. In other words the com- 
munity can only interfere with the individual when 
the individual's conduct interferes unpleasantly with 
the community. The reason is plain. The com- 
munity itself is on the side of the inoffensive 
individual, through fellow-feeling, and in self-protec- 
tion it frustrates the administration of laws which 
are out of sympathy with its sense of justice and 
freedom. 

It is sometimes argued that the objection of 
failure or inefficiency may be equally urged against 
criminal law, which often fails in practice. The 
argument betrays confusion of mind. Criminal law 
is directed against the criminal for the protection of 
the community, and against no one else; its enact- 
ment cannot increase crime, and its administrative 



THE PRINCIPLES OF LIQUOR LEGISLATION 163 

failure entails no ill consequences, except a corre- 
sponding degree of impunity for the criminal. 
Sumptuary law is directed against the community in 
general; when it is defied the law is brought into 
general contempt; when it is evaded by resort to 
clandestine methods, it defeats its own object by 
perpetuating the evil in a worse form. Total pro- 
hibition of a trade which exists to satisfy a natural 
appetite of the community, because some are 
tempted to vicious excess, is not analogous to 
criminal law, but to one which would prohibit shop- 
keeping because some are thereby tempted to 
extravagance or theft. ' To legislate against natural 
appetites,' says Dr. Vivian Poore in his c Medical 
Jurisprudence, ' ' is absurd. ' 

Now intemperance in drink is a vice standing 
in the same relation to the law as the other forms of 
self-indulgence mentioned, and only amenable to the 
same treatment. It causes more disorder than they 
do, and is therefore more liable to compulsory inter- 
ference, but the principle is the same. And if we 
examine the effects of liquor legislation we find that 
principle abundantly illustrated. Several measures 
passed from time to time in this country have been 
mentioned in previous chapters as having produced 
markedly beneficial results. There were the Metro- 
politan Police Act of 1839, the Closing Acts of 1848 
and 1854-5 and 1864, the Wine and Beer-house Act 
of 1869, and the Licensing Acts of 1872 and 1874. 
I do not mean to imply that there were not others, 



164 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

but I mention these because there is no doubt what- 
ever about the good effect produced. I have already 
quoted some of the evidence, and need not repeat it. 
The object of all these successful enactments or of 
the successful portions of them was the suppression 
of disorder. They were directed against particular 
and proved causes and occasions of disorder. Take 
the 1839 Act. It was intended to stop the intoler- 
able scandals, described at length above (p. 36), in 
the streets of London on Sunday, and particularly 
Sunday morning. The cause of that nuisance was 
the continuous drinking in public-houses from 
Saturday night till Sunday, and throughout the day. 
The Act closed the houses for twelve hours from 
midnight on Saturday, and the disorder ceased. The 
people who got drunk on Saturday night had time 
to get sober before they turned out on Sunday. 

When I originally published the greater part of 
the chapter on ' Drink in the Past ' in the form of a 
separate essay, a gentleman who could remember 
the state of things described, and had himself sat on 
the Essex Bench at Stratford for nearly fifty years, 
wrote to me giving his experience and the reasons 
for the ' decline of the dreadful state of things 
mentioned in the article.' ' He could remember/ 
he said, ' black Mondays when working men were 
kept under the influence of the public-house until 
they had spent all their wages.' 

1 This was cured by the forty-second clause of the 
Metropolitan Police Act, 1839. The twelve hours 
that all licensed houses were kept closed till midday 



THE PRINCIPLES OF LIQUOR LEGISLATION 165 

on Sunday obliged the man to go home, and he be- 
came sober and hungry and the money left found 
food for himself and family, and he was able to 
begin work on Monday morning. In 1848 this clause 
for Sunday closing became part of a general Act, 
which began by mentioning the good effect produced 
by it in the London district. ' 



It may be said that nearly all the closing regula- 
tions passed from time to time have been based on 
the same ground — namely, that particular trouble 
ensued from having public-houses open at the hours 
in question ; and they have been markedly successful. 
The only point on which some difference of opinion 
exists is with regard to total closing on Sunday ; and 
the exception is significant, for that step goes beyond 
the needs of public order. It is designed to prevent 
people from drinking at all on Sunday and is a 
measure of compulsory virtue. Hence it has pro- 
duced friction and trouble in large towns, has 
stimulated illicit traffic and evasion of the law. It 
is said by believers in compulsory virtue that the 
police have now got over those difficulties. It may 
be so, but they have a way of breaking out afresh; 
and the police have most certainly not got over all 
of them. At any rate it cannot be denied that they 
occurred, and the conclusion suggested is that a less 
drastic restriction, framed to preserve order, not to 
promote virtue, would have produced all the benefits 
derived from Sunday closing without any of the 
drawbacks. Is it a mere coincidence that the 
average police drunkenness — that is, disorder — is 



166 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

greater, as I have already pointed out, in all the three 
portions of the kingdom where total Sunday closing 
obtains, than in England where it does not? 

The Act of 1869 was directed against the multipli- 
cation and maintenance of disorderly beer-houses, and 
is an excellent example of the legitimate and success- 
ful application of the law. 

The most important provisions of the Acts of 
1872 and 1874 were directly aimed at further purify- 
ing the liquor traffic of its disorderly elements. The 
drunkard himself and the publican who encouraged 
him were both more severely dealt with than before ; 
the powers of the police were enlarged and the hours 
of sale once more regulated. The Act of 1872 clearly 
went as far as was safe at the time in dealing with 
the traffic, for the severity of the penalties for some 
offences interfered with administration through the 
reluctance of magistrates to enforce them, and they 
were consequently mitigated in 1874. 

The success of these Acts was attested by numerous 
witnesses before the House of Lords Committee in 
1876. Father Nugent, who knew disorderly Liver- 
pool as few men knew it, said that the Act of 1872 
1 worked wonders ' there. The chief constable of 
Manchester declared that the Acts had had ' a 
wonderful effect in improving the state of the 
streets/ and similar evidence was given of London, 
Birmingham, Sheffield, Salford, Newcastle, Preston, 
Cardiff, and Bristol. 

c This improvement,' says the Committee, l is at- 
tributed mainly to the new closing regulations, but 



THE PRINCIPLES OF LIQUOR LEGISLATION 167 

it is also due to the abolition of a large number of 
the worst class of beer-houses under the Act of 1869, 
and to the improved character of licensed houses 
generally. ' 

The foregoing are examples of successful legisla- 
tion illustrating my point. I will now turn to some 
cases of unsuccessful legislation. One of the greatest 
failures on record was the Gin Act of 1736, to which 
reference has already been made. The spirit which 
prompted it is disclosed in the preamble : 

' Whereas the drinking of spirituous liquors or 
strong waters is become very common, especially 
among the people of lower and inferior rank, the 
constant and excessive use whereof tends greatly to 
the destruction of their health, rendering them unfit 
for useful labour and business, debauching their mo- 
rals, and inciting them to perpetrate all manner of 
vices, and the ill consequences of such liquors are 
not confined to the present generation, but extend to 
future ages and tend to the devastation and ruin of 
this kingdom.' 

The Legislature is here clearly contemplating the 
current intemperance as a moral evil and is under- 
taking the task of compelling the people to be virtu- 
ous. It did exactly what any other legislature would 
do, and what many have done, in the same frame of 
mind — it endeavoured to suppress the noxious traffic 
altogether. The result was to make things so much 
worse that the Act had to be hastily repealed a few 
years later, just as the various legislative attempts to 
suppress prostitution enacted in Europe, and inspired 



168 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

by equally good motives, always had to be repealed 
in a few years. It was not until the English Parlia- 
ment returned to the policy of improving the traffic 
by purging it of its more disorderly elements that 
any advance was made against intemperance. 

Another notorious failure was the Beer-house 
Act of 1830. It may be called a piece of theoretical 
legislation. Its object was not to carry out the plain 
duty of the law, but to make people better by wean- 
ing them from spirits and withdrawing them from 
the pernicious influence of the tied-house system. 
Its result is an emphatic warning against legislating 
on theory for moral ends. ' Never/ says the Peel 
Commission, ' was an Act passed which more 
disastrously failed to fulfil the expectations of its 
authors.' This is somewhat of an overstatement, 
as the policy was not fully reversed for nearly forty 
years, whereas other measures in various countries 
have had to be much more hastily repealed; but the 
Act was undoubtedly a false step, and the condemna- 
tion quoted is interesting as coming from those who 
recommend speculative legislation on the same 
principles though in different directions. 

The Act of 1860 which gave rise to * grocers' 
licenses ' was on the same lines and has been equally 
condemned. It was intended to wean people from 
the public-house by encouraging home consumption. 
It did encourage home consumption, but did not 
wean people from the public-house, just as the 1830 
Act encouraged beer-drinking without diminishing 
the popularity of spirits. Opinions may differ as to 



THE PRINCIPLES OF LIQUOR LEGISLATION 169 

the harm done by grocers' licenses, but there is no 
point on which temperance reformers insist more 
strongly, and I am not aware that any one claims 
success for the Act in diminishing drunkenness or 
drinking. 

It is no part of my purpose to go through all the 
enactments that have been placed on the Statute- 
book in this country; I merely wish to put before 
the reader sufficient examples to make my meaning 
clear. They may be supplemented by a few refer- 
ences to foreign legislation. 

One of the most instructive examples is the 
Gothenburg system, which has succeeded or failed 
precisely in accordance with the view taken of its 
intention. Its opponents point out the undeniable 
fact that it has not made the people sober, and say 
that it has failed; its more enthusiastic advocates 
here maintain that it would make them sober if the 
system embraced the control of beer as well as that of 
spirits. Now in Gothenburg I was taught to regard 
both these arguments as wide of the mark. Mr. 
Willerding, who had assisted in the movement from 
its birth and who certainly understood the principle 
and the objects with which it was adopted better than 
any man in the place, insisted with the greatest 
earnestness that it was not understood in England. 
He had shortly before gone all the way to London 
for the purpose of explaining it at a public meeting, 
but the object of the meeting was apparently 
advertisement rather than instruction, and the one 
man present who understood the subject had to 



170 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

make way for prominent persons who did not. The 
point which he repeatedly impressed on my mind 
was that the system was not inaugurated to make 
people sober, but to do away with the gross and 
scandalous abuses connected with the existing spirit 
traffic, which were the cause of intolerable disorder. 
In that aim it succeeded very well indeed. 

The Scandinavian liquor legislation in general 
teaches the same lesson. It is not a question of one 
system versus another, of * disinterested manage- 
ment ' versus local veto, as controversialists will 
have it, but of the object in view and the limits of 
compulsion. During the first half of the nineteenth 
century both Norway and Sweden were drowned in 
spirits. Anybody could distil and sell the stuff, 
which was made everywhere. In 1829 there were in 
Sweden 173,124 stills, and in 1833 the number in 
Norway was 9,727. There was, in fact, free trade 
in the manufacture and sale of spirits. It produced 
the same effects as in England a century before. 
The cause was obvious, and eventually the legislature 
had to grapple with it. Norway took the lead in 
1845-8 by restricting the sale and manufacture. 
This is a clear case of sound legislation. Free trade 
caused gross disorder; the law stopped it without 
any oppressive interference and consequently with 
success. In 1850 the distilleries had been reduced 
to 40. But the usual counsels of impossible perfec- 
tion were heard and nearly prevailed. ' It nearly 
happened/ says Mr. Berner, of Christiania, ' that a 
resolution prohibiting the sale of liquors became 



THE PRINCIPLES OF LIQUOR LEGISLATION 171 

law.' Fortunately the Norwegian Parliament had 
sufficient sense to avoid this snare. * It was real- 
ised/ he continues, ' that in view of the then exist- 
ing customs of the people, such a step would be 
chimerical. ' Accordingly there was restriction but 
no prohibition. The same capacity to recognise 
what is possible and what is not was shown in 
Sweden, when the problem was handled there in 
1855. Manufacture and sale were restricted and a 
very sensible distinction was drawn between town 
and country. In both a certain power over the sale 
of spirits — a form of limited local option — was 
granted, but in the rural districts it was more 
complete. The bar sale of spirits for ' on '-consump- 
tion could be locally prohibited altogether, but not 
in the towns. ' As long,' says Dr. Sigfrid Wiesel- 
gren, ' as brandy was considered a legitimate article 
of commerce, the towns, being centres of the trade, 
could not exclude it; an attempt to do so would 
have thrown the traffic into unlawful channels, to 
the great detriment of morality, temperance, and 
order.' The towns, however, could place the sale of 
spirits entirely in the hands of a disinterested com- 
pany. This was done in Gothenburg in 1865. 
Hence the name of the system, which was before 
long adopted all over Sweden and Norway. The 
practical wisdom of the distinction is shown by the 
fact that in Norway the qualified local veto enjoyed 
by the country districts was in 1894 extended to the 
towns, and several availed themselves of the chance; 
but the change has been accompanied by a marked 



172 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

increase in disorder, and each year the vote in its 
favour has diminished. It is evident that the towns 
are a safety-valve to the rural districts, and that the 
limit of effective restriction has already been reached, 
particularly in Norway, where the recent increase 
in drunkenness is attributed to the sale of noxious 
spirituous concoctions under the name of wine. The 
sale of beer for consumption off the premises is free 
in both countries. The words ' prohibition ' and 
' local veto/ therefore, can only be applied to Scan- 
dinavia in a qualified sense. 

The favoured home of compulsory virtue is the 
United States, where local legislatures, untram- 
meled by experience or authority and secure in 
their own wisdom, are free to embark on the most 
despotic experiments in sumptuary law. In some 
States liberty appears to be preserved only by 
general permission to ignore the law. The liquor 
question in particular presents a museum of legis- 
lative and administrative curiosities, which could 
not fail to be instructive if reliable information 
about them were forthcoming. Unfortunately it 
has everywhere become a matter of party politics, 
and consequently those most familiar with the facts 
are often concerned to obscure the truth for ends 
of their own. Some disinterested investigations, 
however, have been made, among which an inquiry 
instituted by a committee of New York gentlemen 
appears to have been conceived and carried out in 
the most judicial and penetrating spirit. 1 The 

1 The Liquor Problem in its Legislative Aspects (Houghton, 
Mifflin, & Company), i i 



THE PRINCIPLES OF LIQUOR LEGISLATION 173 

summary conclusions, which are signed by Mr. 
Charles W. Eliot, Mr. Seth Low, and Mr. James C. 
Carter, fully bear out the lessons that have been 
drawn from European experience. With regard to 
the promotion of temperance by law those gentle- 
men note that ' the influences of race or nationality 
are apparently more important than legislation/ and 
recognise that outward improvement secured by 
legislation does not necessarily imply a real diminu- 
tion of drinking. In other words, they recognise 
the limits of the law in promoting moral improve- 
ment. And they clearly indicate what the aims 
should be in legislating. ' The wise course for the 
community at large is to strive after all external 
visible improvement, even if it be impossible to 
prove that internal, fundamental improvement 
accompanies it.' That is to say, look after public 
order and leave morality to moral influences. 
Further — * That law is best which is best ad- 
ministered; ' and the law which is shown to be the 
worst administered is that which most oversteps its 
proper sphere and aims direct at compulsory virtue. 

1 All restrictions on the licensed saloons have a 
tendency to develop illicit selling; but much experi- 
ence has proved that illicit selling cannot get a large 
development by the side of licensed selling, if the 
police administration be at all effective. It is only 
in regions where prohibition prevails that illicit sell- 
ing assumes large proportions. 

' There have been concomitant evils of prohibitory 
legislation. The efforts to enforce it during forty 



174 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

years past have had some unlooked-for effects on 
public respect for courts, judicial procedure, oaths 
and law in general, and for officers of the law, legis- 
lators, and public servants. The public have seen 
law defied, a whole generation of habitual law- 
breakers schooled in evasion and shamelessness, courts 
ineffective through fluctuations of policy, delays, per- 
juries, negligences, and other miscarriages of justice, 
officers of the law double-faced and mercenary, legis- 
lators timid and insincere, candidates for office hypo- 
critical and truckling, and office-holders unfaithful 
to pledges and to reasonable public expectation. 
Through an agitation which has always had a moral 
end these immoralities have been developed and made 
conspicuous.' 

Eestriction by local option is more favourably 
regarded, because it has public opinion more behind 
it and is less compulsory. American experience 
appears to corroborate Scandinavian that suppression 
of bars may be successfully carried out in rural 
districts and in those not far from towns where 
liquor can be obtained. Villages and suburban 
districts in our own country which are without any 
public-house point to the same conclusion. For 
towns and industrial centres a lawful but reasonably 
restricted trade is found most suitable in America as 
elsewhere. The restrictions recommended by the 
New York Committee are those which the ' experience 
of many years and many places has shown to be 
desirable.' They are, briefly, the prohibition of sale 
to minors, intoxicated persons, or habitual drunkards ; 
on Sundays, holidays, and days of public excitement, 



THE PMNCIPLES OF LIQUOR LEGISLATION 175 

but l where such a restriction is openly disregarded, 
as in St. Louis, it is injurious to have it in the 
law; ' saloons not to become places of entertain- 
ment and play or to be connected with theatres, 
concerts, and sporting exhibitions; saloons to be 
open to inspection from the highway; a limit to the 
hours of selling, ' and the shorter the hours the 
better.' It has also been ' found necessary to 
prevent the display of obscene pictures and the em- 
ployment of women. ' 

All these restrictions, with one exception, are 
directly concerned with the maintenance of public 
order and decency. The exception is the prohibition 
of sale to minors, which is partly in the interest of 
public order, for young persons are more quickly 
intoxicated than adults, and partly to prevent their 
demoralisation. The last is also a legitimate func- 
tion of the State, which is properly entrusted with 
the protection of those who by age or infirmity are 
unfit to protect themselves. 

I trust that enough has now been said to show 
that the a posteriori teachings of experience gathered 
over a wide area are quite in conformity with the a 
priori dictates of common sense. And when once the 
principle is grasped it is easily applied to the exami- 
nation of legislative reforms. It draws a dividing 
line between the spheres of legal and moral action 
and gives each its proper work to do. They are 
mutually interdependent; moral influences must be 
backed up, as they advance step by step, by the 
law, which in turn draws its effective sanction from 



176 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

them. But they are distinct. To confound them 
is to court failure and disappointment. Many are 
tempted by the evils they see to seek a shorter cut 
to the desired goal, and because moral influences 
are too slow would fain invoke the law to do their 
work. The short cut only leads to a quagmire. 

Nor is that the worst of it. I beg those who 
hold by the moral law and its importance in national 
life to think this matter over. There is a strong 
drift in the present day towards the total elimination 
of individual responsibility for all delinquencies and, 
by implication, for all merits. It sets in two 
directions. One is the physical theory, which makes 
congenital tendencies and environment all-impor- 
tant; the other is the social theory, which attri- 
butes all evils to existing laws and systems and 
promises to abolish the former by changing the 
latter, without any regard to individuals, as if the 
said laws and systems had first made themselves and 
then dictated the conduct of individuals. The 
confusion between the moral and legal spheres in 
temperance reform is an example of this muddled 
thinking. It belittles the moral element in conduct 
by exaggerating the responsibility of externals, and 
can only lead to moral deterioration. 



177 



CHAPTER VIII 1 

THEIR APPLICATION 

The problem of liquor legislation has been obscured 
and complicated by a multiplicity of phrases and 
formulas, to which controversy has given an import- 
ance they do not possess. Conditions which are 
alleged to give rise to evils are mistaken for those 
evils, and schemes which are only means to an end 
have become the end itself to enthusiastic partisans. 
If these things are set aside, and the real object kept 
steadily in view, the problem is at once simplified. 
The law we want is that which will best secure good 
order and remove the abuses connected with the 
consumption of an article, the use of which may be 
voluntarily abandoned, but cannot be forcibly sup- 
pressed. In pursuance of that aim we can attack in 
three directions: (1) the disorderly person; (2) the 
disorderly place; (3) the disorderly time — using the 
word ' disorderly ' in a general sense. There are 
difficulties in connection with each, but the worst 
difficulties arise from the state of public sentiment, 

1 Since this chapter was written several of the suggestions 
made have been embodied in the Government Bill. 



178 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

which governs the administration more surely than 
the enactment of the law, and is totally beyond 
control. 

I. THE DISORDERLY PERSON 

The disorderly person, by whom I mean the 
person who gets drunk, is already dealt with every- 
where, but nowhere adequately, nor likely to be. He 
is too much of a pet, as I have pointed out before. 
If male drunkards were flogged, and female shut up 
indefinitely, there would be none left in six months. 
But of course such treatment is quite impossible. 
The truth is that the community does not seriously 
wish to rid itself of this nuisance. Even those who 
are most assiduous in calling for legislation care more 
for the suppression of the public-house than for the 
abolition of drunkenness. Yet, I cannot help thinking 
that public sentiment would support a little strength- 
ening of the measures meted out to those very 
objectionable persons who reduce themselves to help- 
less imbecility or raving lunacy in public, and in pri- 
vate inflict all violence, cruelty, and misery on those 
about them. If it will not, we need expect no im- 
provement from any ' schemes ' or ' systems, ' for the 
drunkard, with public opinion at his back, will easily 
circumvent them all. I do not think we are in such 
a hopeless case as that. The recent Act providing 
for the prolonged incarceration of certain regular 
drunkards met with general approval, and I suggest 
that a more summary method of dealing with casual 
drunkards, even if they have committed no other 



THEIR APPLICATION 179 

offence, would be quite as well received and much 
more effective. The disposal of diseased inebriates 
is a very difficult subject, with which I deal more at 
length in a separate chapter. I will only say here 
that disappointment awaits those who expect much 
from homes, unless detention is made perpetual, and 
that no provision of the kind will touch the mass 
of male drunkenness in England. The ordinary 
deliberate able-bodied drunkard, who is in no wise a 
dipsomaniac, or in need of medical treatment, will 
remain at large, and will continue to enjoy himself in 
his own fashion so long as he can find any one to 
keep him in countenance. But it is well within the 
power of the law to make him feel that his mode 
of enjoyment is offensive to other people. Two 
things might be done. The police might deal more 
summarily with him when he is merely a nuisance; 
and when he commits an offence under the influence 
of drink, his condition might be regarded as an 
aggravation, and entail a heavier penalty. This 
seems to me both justice and common sense, for 
such a man deliberately puts himself in the way 
of committing a crime by getting drunk. Better 
protection against drunken husbands or wives should 
be afforded to their victims, and the law for dealing 
with drunkenness should be uniform throughout the 
kingdom. 

II. THE DISORDERLY PLACE 

The disorderly place is any establishment — 
whether pothouse, club, refreshment bar, or shop — 



180 DEINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

which connives at drunkenness. The club and the 
shop at present escape control altogether. With 
regard to the last, which practically means grocers ' 
licenses, there should be some power of punishing 
those who misuse their opportunities to encourage 
intemperate customers. They do not appear to be 
many, but it is impossible to resist the evidence 
brought before the Peel Commission that there are 
some, and that their malpractices can be proved. 
There should be power to take away their licenses 
on proof. But if grocers' licenses are placed wholly 
under magisterial control, some will be granted and 
some refused for arbitrary reasons; an unfair com- 
petition will thus be raised between persons engaged 
in the same harmless and indispensable trade, a new 
monopoly and a new vested interest will be created. 
The original grant of a license should therefore be 
free as at present, but its renewal should be subject 
to refusal on proved misconduct. The threat would 
probably be quite sufficient to ensure the good con- 
duct of a trade which is already, with but few 
exceptions, perfectly respectable and orderly, and a 
great convenience to a large class of perfectly 
respectable people. 

With regard to clubs, they have become the 
source of much trouble and disorder, and one which 
is capable of indefinite expansion. It is worse than 
useless to treat licensed houses more stringently 
until unlicensed ones are brought under control, 
and the history of the public-house shows that control 
is a farce unless the police have power of entry. 



THEIR APPLICATION 181 

It would be no more oppressive to decent clubs than 
it is to decent hotels ; the members of the one would 
see and hear no more of the police inspector than 
the inmates of the other, and that is just nothing at 
all. Proprietary clubs would have to be converted 
into members' clubs, of course, but that presents no 
serious difficulty. The present sale of liquor in 
them is totally illegal, and the Inland Revenue 
Department is only prevented from prosecuting by 
the difficulty of obtaining evidence. Opposition to 
control offered by workmen's clubs amounts to self- 
indictment, for only those with something to conceal 
have anything to fear. Hostility to the police is 
always suspect; it ranges those who entertain it 
with the criminal classes, who alone fear the police. 
The fact that such opposition has been offered is one 
of the strongest arguments for the need of control. 

Then we come to the public-house — a difficult 
subject, but less complicated than it is made to 
appear. There are disorderly and ill-conducted 
houses; the object is to get rid of them. Two com- 
prehensive plans, which are a departure from our 
present system, are proposed, and may be considered 
first. One is local option, and the other disinterested 
management. In principle I can see no fundamental 
objection to either. "With regard to local option, the 
case depends on the conditions. If a community 
really desires to abolish any institution which it 
finds offensive, it clearly has a natural right to do 
so, provided that this entails no interference with 
the prior rights of others, and no hardship on 



182 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

unoffending individuals. Thus, if the suppression 
of public-houses in a place is desired by every one, 
except drunkards and the publicans who live on 
them, it is quite justifiable. I do not know if 
there are any such places, but there may be. If 
it means, on the other hand, that A and B are to 
control the tastes and habits of C, who does not 
interfere with them, it is merely a revival in modern 
form of the old religious intolerance, which had an 
equally good motive. This kind of thing might 
be carried to any lengths. A and B might as well 
have the right to prohibit butchers' shops, because 
they are vegetarians and disapprove of meat, or 
C might conspire with D and E to retaliate. 
Tyranny is no less tyranny because it is decreed by 
votes. The belief that local option would in practice 
generally be tyranny explains the deep and wide 
antipathy to it felt in a country where liberty is still 
prized. Intolerant reformers who wish to thrust 
their views on others feel the objection themselves 
when it is proposed to use the same sacred machinery 
to introduce a change of which they happen to dis- 
approve, though it would not interfere with their 
personal habits. Thus local option has become 
local veto ; the people are only to have the chance of 
prohibiting public-houses. The proposal that they 
shall have the choice of the Gothenburg system or 
of more public-houses, to be decided by votes, is 
vehemently opposed. I am afraid the catchword 
i Trust the people ' is a piece of pure humbug. 



THEIR APPLICATION 183 

Politicians only want to trust the people when they 
think the people agree with them. 

Putting all this aside, however, we have to note 
that local option has only a very limited application 
even where it is most successful, and leaves the 
disorderly traffic, which is in populous centres, un- 
touched. In America, the home of local prohibition, 
its successful application is confined to rural districts 
and residential suburbs. In this country the field 
would undoubtedly be the same, and in all prob- 
ability much less extensive. In other words, local 
veto would hardly touch the disorderly traffic at all. 
I can only explain the passionate attachment of a 
section of reformers to this plan by their lack of 
acquaintance with the feelings and habits of the 
great mass of our people. 

Disinterested management — otherwise the Gothen- 
burg system — is a more hopeful plan. I have 
a good deal to say about it later on and will pass 
briefly over it here. The great advantage it has is 
the combined control over the disorderly house 
and the disorderly hours. It eliminates both at 
once, so far as that is possible, without the inter- 
vention of Acts of Parliament or cumbrous admin- 
istrative machinery. But to do this it must be 
completely applied; that is to say, there must be 
a monopoly of all the houses in a place. The 
objection that it would bar the way to entire 
suppression of the traffic has no weight. Suppres- 
sion is at present below the horizon; when it looms 
up within sight Parliament will have much less 



184 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

difficulty in dealing with companies on the Gothen- 
burg plan than with private owners. They might be 
installed on that distinct understanding. The real 
obstacle is the dispossession of the present owners. 
They cannot be dispossessed without compensation, 
and the speculation is likely to tempt neither 
municipalities nor trusts. If, however, any town 
is willing to try, it should have the chance. In any 
case this plan, though more generally applicable 
than local veto, would leave a vast amount of the 
traffic under the present system of control. 

How, then, are disorderly houses to be suppressed? 
The law provides ample machinery, and it works 
fairly well in England and Scotland, though not in 
Ireland. The gradual elimination of houses and 
improvement in the conduct of the traffic have been 
going on for the last thirty years. It is not at all 
a bad record. The method is slow, but it is much 
more sure and steady than those exotic schemes 
which so dazzle the fancy of impatient reformers. 
It is sure because it is founded on sound principles. 
The more showy and ambitious methods which 
some would like to substitute for it are capricious in 
their action and apt to develop quite unexpected 
results; for two or three years they may apparently 
perform wonders and then take an unforeseen turn 
which only special pleading can explain away. The 
uneasy chopping and changing of systems by other 
legislatures does not suggest any superiority to our 
own method of a gradually tightening restriction as 
the standard of public opinion rises. At the same 



THEIR APPLICATION 185 

time I quite agree with those who think the process 
might be accelerated with advantage. I know 
personally establishments which are centres of 
disorder and a common nuisance. They ought to 
be suppressed or summarily reformed, but they are 
not; and I do not see any immediate prospect of 
it, though theoretically the law should suffice. Let 
us examine its defects in order. 

There are three factors in our system of dealing 
with the liquor trade — (1) the police, (2) the ordinary 
magisterial bench, (3) the licensing bench. All are 
human, but there is no evidence to support a railing 
accusation against any of them, except perhaps the 
licensing bench in Ireland ; and I believe their laxity 
is due more to native kindness of heart than to 
anything else. Some atrabilious persons love to 
dwell on little individual instances of police or 
magisterial misdoing here and there, and to hint 
that the whole of the police force and the magistracy 
throughout the country, with the exception of 
teetotal members, is honeycombed with corruption 
and virtually in the pay of the liquor trade. No 
doubt they judge others by themselves, but as this 
terrible state of things can only be cured by having 
none but teetotalers in the force or on the bench, 
we must continue to put up with it for lack of 
teetotalers. No; we have no reason to be ashamed 
of the police or the magistrates. They might do 
their work better, and so might every one else — even 
those who are so immaculate that they can devote 



186 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

the whole of their time to looking after their 
neighbours' morals. 

The efficiency of the police is impaired by two 
standing conditions which are susceptible of reform 
— one constitutional, the other administrative. The 
first is the dependence of the force on the local 
authority. (This does not apply to Ireland.) Chief 
constables in English boroughs are too liable to be 
hampered and thwarted by the watch committees 
under whose control they are. Abundant evidence of 
this was brought before the Peel Commission. Watch 
committees are composed of popularly elected 
persons, and the less the administration of the law 
has to do with votes the better. Chief constables 
should be able to do their duty without fear of 
dismissal by an interested authority, and they should 
have legal assistance. The second condition is the 
system of supervising public-houses. It is a very 
important matter. The efficiency of supervision 
varies greatly, and I am convinced that in many 
places it is capable of much improvement. The 
experience of Liverpool in this respect is highly 
instructive. 1 For several years prior to 1890 super- 
vision was entrusted to a special public-house staff 
told off for the purpose. The chief constable found 
that it did not work satisfactorily, and being aided 
by a public agitation changed it for a new system, 
of which the following were the chief features. Each 

1 Royal Commission on Liquor Licensing Laws, iii. pp. 2, 10, 
552. 



THEIR APPLICATION 187 

superintendent was held responsible for the good 
conduct of the houses in his own division. Every 
month he detailed one sergeant and one constable 
in plain clothes to visit all the licensed houses in his 
division, report fully on them, and lay informations 
if necessary. These special officers were changed 
every month. At the same time the sergeant on 
each section was held responsible for the houses in 
his own area, and informed that if any were shown 
to be irregularly conducted and had not been 
previously reported the fact would be taken as 
evidence of his unfitness for the position. The 
divisional inspectors were also instructed to visit 
all licensed houses in their divisions, and were held 
responsible to the superintendent for seeing that 
the inspection of the sergeants was real and not 
merely superficial. When a house was reported 
to the chief constable, it became the duty of the 
superintendent, after notice had been served on the 
licensee and the owner, to take measures to have 
the premises regularly watched by special officers. 

Here we have a model system, securing thorough 
supervision and personal responsibility, with double 
and treble checks. A valuable provision is the 
special inspection by a sergeant and a constable in 
company, changed every month. The new system 
at the same time stimulated and enabled the licens- 
ing bench to adopt closer inquiry and mora stringent 
action in regard to ill-conducted houses. The effect 
on public order was most striking, as shown by the 



188 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

following table, which gives the six years before and 
six after the change : 

Number of persons drunk when apprehended 



Old System 

1884 17,297 

1885 15,700 

1886 13,159 

1887 16,323 

1888 15,979 

1889 16,617 



New System 

1890 15,054 

1891 11,903 

1892 10,088 

1893 9,265 

1894 6,327 

1895 6,223 



When it is remembered that the earlier six years 
were a time of great depression and low consump- 
tion, and the later six years one of reviving pros- 
perity and increased consumption, and when it is 
further stated that the police rather increased than 
diminished their activity in dealing with drunken- 
ness, it must be admitted that the improvement in 
public order and in the conduct of the traffic indi- 
cated by the table is a convincing proof both of the 
power of the existing law and of the importance of 
police administration. I do not know of a parallel 
case of improvement effected by any foreign system. 
If the Liverpool plan were generally adopted in large 
towns it would have a far-reaching effect on the 
bench, which would be supplied with cogent reasons 
for firm action. It is interesting to note that the 
discredited system abandoned in 1890 was originally 
adopted at the instance of the temperance party, and 
was long retained in spite of the chief constable for 
fear of offending them. 

Among the places which need better supervision 






THEIR APPLICATION 189 

I would draw special attention to the refreshment 
bars of railway stations, and particularly the large 
terminus stations in London of lines having much 
suburban traffic. In these places visibly and audibly 
intoxicated persons, who are an unspeakable nuisance 
to the travelling public, are habitually treated with 
an amiable blindness to their condition which no East 
End publican would dare to practise. 

We pass on to the ordinary magisterial bench. 
There is little doubt that magistrates are sometimes, 
perhaps generally, inclined to deal rather tenderly 
with offences against the liquor laws. They are 
slow to convict publicans, which discourages the 
police, and reluctant to endorse convictions on the 
licenses. This attitude is to some extent a set-off, a 
tacit protest against the persecuting spirit of extreme 
temperance reformers. If they were more moderate 
magistrates would be less tender. But there are real 
difficulties in proving certain offences, and I do not 
think they can be altogether overcome. It is quite 
impossible, as I have repeatedly convinced myself, 
for a liquor seller, even for one who has the strongest 
inducements to prevent drunkenness, to recognise 
that condition in some customers, and injustice 
would be done by making him responsible under 
heavy penalties for every case. On the other hand, 
the heaviest penalty should be imposed without 
hesitation on those who habitually connive at 
drunkenness. The houses which the law should 
aim at are those which are standing centres of 
disorder, and cumulative evidence of disorder in 



190 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

connection with a house should be sufficient proof 
of misconduct. It may be less the fault of the 
publican than of his customers — rough gangs will 
frequent a particular house and become uncontrol- 
lable. But that is just the kind of house that ought 
not to exist, and the risk of taking it should be too 
great for any decent man. For the same reason a 
bad record should certainly stand against the house 
as well as against the publican. Such records should 
be kept with full details and produced before the 
licensing authority. Magistrates' clerks should 
have no connection with the liquor trade and no 
interest in it. 

There remains the licensing bench, to which a 
vast amount of attention has been directed. Much 
of it appears to me quite irrelevant and to rest on 
the assumption that it is the business of magistrates 
to exercise a paternal control over the tastes and 
habits of their neighbours, and under the guise of 
interpreting their needs to decide how much they 
shall drink or whether they shall drink at all. My 
contention is that their business is to keep the peace, 
as their title implies, and so far as licensing is con- 
cerned not to give permission for the sale of liquor 
where it is or is likely to be a cause of disorder. If 
they would stick to that plain duty and carry it out 
resolutely, we should derive far more benefit than 
we are likely to do from the adoption of the paternal 
principle, which is an attempt to slip a sumptuary 
character into the law by way of administration. 
Its effect is to divide the bench into two parties and 



THEIR APPLICATION 191 

to make licensing a battle-ground between them; 
sometimes one comes out victor, sometimes the 
other, but in the ardour of the fray the real busi- 
ness is apt to drop out of sight. This largely 
accounts for the failure of the justices to suppress 
houses which ought to be suppressed. Temperance 
zeal on a local bench excites reprisals at quarter 
sessions, and licenses refused by the former are 
granted by the latter on appeal. 

The introduction of a popularly elected element 
into the licensing and the appellate body has been 
proposed as a remedy. It could not fail to make 
things worse. The temperance organisations and the 
trade would strive their utmost to get sympathisers 
on to the bench, which would become still more 
partisan. Eventually licensing business would be the 
sport of party politics. We should have excessive 
rigour here and excessive laxity there, both equally 
detrimental to the public interest. There can be no 
more fatal mistake than to make the administration 
of law dependent on popular elections. When large 
pecuniary interests are at stake corruption is certain 
to follow. It is amazing that such a proposal should 
come from those who recognise that watch com- 
mittees, who are nominated from popularly elected 
representatives of the people, cannot be trusted in 
licensing matters, and that the greatest evil in 
Ireland is the susceptibility of licensing magistrates 
to popular pressure. Here we have two substantial 
pieces of evidence from experience, that local and 
popular influence is a dangerous element to bring to 



192 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

bear on licensing administration. In favour of it 
we have nothing but the general democratic theory 
and an idea that if the l needs of the neighbourhood ' 
were considered — to be determined by some purely 
arbitrary calculation — the efficacy of the licensing 
bench would be increased. This is just the frame of 
mind which has led to legislative blunders in the past. 
We are advised to take a step in the dark, on the- 
oretical grounds and in the vague hope of promoting 
morality. The suggestion is supported by a con- 
fused use of the word ' administrative.' The 
licensing justices are credited with ' administrative ' 
functions which are somehow non-judicial or extra- 
legal. But what they administer is the law, and in 
that sense all judicial functions are administrative. 
Judges exist to administer the law. Licensing 
magistrates have a certain discretion, it is true, but 
so have all judges; it is necessary to give sufficient 
elasticity to statutory law, which cannot foresee and 
provide for all circumstances. 

The real defect of the licensing courts is that 
they are not judicial enough. If they were we 
should get rid of more objectionable houses. The 
experience of Ireland is again instructive on the 
converse side. By far the most satisfactory licensing 
courts in the United Kingdom are the quarter 
sessions courts in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, London- 
derry, and Gal way ; and they are the most judicial, the 
sole authority being the Eecorder in each city. 1 The 

1 Royal Commission on Liquor Licensing Laws, vol. vii., and 
Final Report, p. 236. 






THEIR APPLICATION 193 

general satisfaction which they give is in striking 
contrast with the condemnation of the petty-sessional 
magistrates, who are subject to popular influence. 
The reform proposed for Ireland by general consent 
and accepted by both sections of the Peel Com- 
mission is that all the licensing courts should be 
made more judicial and less popular; that the 
licensing business should, in fact, be in the hands 
of judges and stipendiaries. This is the exact 
opposite of the recommendation for England, and 
irreconcilable with the ' trust-the-people ' principle 
on which the latter is based; but since the one is 
backed by actual experience, the other by a mere 
fancy which is inconsistent with the conclusions 
about watch committees, and with the objections 
urged against municipal liquor traffic, there is no 
doubt which is the sounder proposal. Indeed it 
seems to need no argument that when law has to 
be administered, the higher the character and 
intelligence of the persons appointed to administer 
it and the greater their independence the better. 
1 Local ' knowledge, which often means prejudice or 
personal interest, should be supplied to the court 
by the police and other witnesses, not by the court. 
The court should demand it, and the more judicial 
the court the more pains it would take to be fully 
and fairly informed. A competent stipendiary or 
county court judge would be careful to do all those 
things which licensing justices are accused of 
neglecting. He would look to the map, require 
details as to premises, insist on the production of 



194 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

the record, scrutinise agreements, demand explana- 
tions, and bring misconduct home to the real 
offender. 

Experience and common sense alike suggest that 
if the constitution of the licensing authority is to 
be changed it should be in this direction. The 
question of disqualification would thus be settled 
and a number of minor points in licensing procedure 
rendered of no importance. With such a court, a 
police system like that in Liverpool, an independent 
chief constable, and a record kept of offences, we 
should get all that can be got from the law in the 
way of controlling the number and the conduct 
of licensed houses. I am well aware that this will 
by no means satisfy many who would like to see 
a large and immediate reduction of ' superfluous ' 
public-houses, the abolition of the tied-house system, 
and so on. I have no objection, but think they 
are very unlikely to get these things done and still 
more unlikely to be pleased with the results when 
they have got them. The word ' superfluous f may 
be interpreted in two ways. If it means that the 
houses are too numerous for effective supervision 
or for respectable trade, and therefore causes of 
disorder, they would be reduced without any trouble 
or difficulty by the effective administration I suggest. 
If it means that they exceed some numerical pro- 
portion to the population, arbitrarily fixed, and 
must therefore be reduced, although they are orderly 
and respectable, then you at once raise the thorniest 
of all the liquor questions — compensation — and you 



THEIR APPLICATION 195 

go outside the proper province of the law. Is this 
wise or feasible or necessary? I think not. Let 
us at any rate get rid of the disorderly places first, 
wherein we are on safe ground. The same reasoning 
applies to the tied-house system. It is neither 
possible nor necessary to abolish it. Far too much 
fuss has been made about the system, as such. 
Some tied-houses are the very best conducted houses 
there are, conducted according to my observation 
much more carefully than disinterested company 
houses. Such are those in Liverpool, as the chief 
constable has testified. Other tied-houses are just 
the reverse and perhaps the worst conducted of all. 
It depends on the individuals and the control 
exercised over them, not on the system. Abolish 
the bad ones by all means; but to abolish the 
system on abstract grounds, whether its results are 
good or bad, is more than the law can do or ought 
to attempt. 

So much, then, for the person and the house. 
The upshot of it is: Deal more severely with the 
offender, with the drunkard and the publican who 
encourages him. Herein I entirely agree with Mr. 
Daly, chief clerk of the Dublin police courts, a 
gentleman of very great experience, who gave 
some admirable evidence before the Eoyal Com- 
mission. The Irish witnesses were as a body by 
far the best, and Mr. Daly was one of the best of 
them. ' I do heartily believe/ he said, ' that if the 
legislative attack were more directed on the wrong- 
doer, including the habitual inebriate and the dis- 



196 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

reputable trader, and less spread over the whole 
community, a great deal would be done for tem- 
perance that is not done now.' 



in. THE DISORDERLY TIME 

There remains the third point which requires 
separate mention. In accordance with the principle 
that the law can properly and successfully interfere 
with any condition which is a proved cause of 
disorder, it ought to deal with the disorderly hours. 
If there is any one thing which has had a decided 
and immediate effect in the past and would have 
it again, it is a reduction of time. Closing in towns 
an hour earlier at night, and particularly on Satur- 
day night, would make an enormous difference. Per- 
haps it is impracticable because so many people want 
something to eat and drink on coming out from 
theatres and other places of entertainment. But 
only bars need be closed; places of refreshment 
might be kept open later, as is done under the 
Gothenburg system. "What we really want is a 
different classification of licenses, which should be 
five in number: (1) hotel, (2) restaurant, (3) bar, 
(4) off-sale, (5) club. This was one of the best 
suggestions made to the Royal Commission. It 
would enable many things to be done for the public 
convenience and the promotion of good order, and 
one of them is the early closing of bars. Public- 
houses close at ten in the country, which largely 
accounts for the superior sobriety of rural districts; 



THEIR APPLICATION 197 

I can see no reason why all bars should not close 
at ten. Bestaurants could remain open till eleven 
or twelve. This is the only way in which curtail- 
ment of the drunkards' hour could be effected. 

Closing for a considerable number of hours on 
days of public excitement, such as elections, is a 
practical step which would have a real effect on 
public order in many places; and I think the hours 
of sale on Sundays might be reduced in England 
with advantage, but total Sunday closing I believe 
to be quite impracticable. It would not only create 
an illicit traffic too general to be controlled, but 
would raise a storm sufficient to turn out any 
government. Those who advocate it underrate the 
attachment of the uncellared classes to the public- 
house, or over-estimate the docility of the English 
people. Curtailment of hours is one thing; total 
deprivation for a whole day, and that a holiday, is 
another. I recall an incident which illustrates the 
feelings of an average working man on the subject. 
He was in the hospital — I forget for what, but it was 
a surgical case— and he underwent some severe pain 
without an anaesthetic, perhaps a small operation or 
the examination of an injury. He bore it very well, 
but on being asked how it felt he replied that l it was 
like waiting for the public-house to open on Sunday. ' 
He could think of nothing more trying. The argu- 
ment for Sunday closing drawn from other countries 
and even from Scotland, Ireland, and "Wales is 
deceptive. They are all far more rural than England, 
and it is in the rural districts that Sunday closing 



198 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

has been well borne. In Ireland five principal towns 
are exempted, and the representatives of the 
working classes have strongly protested against the 
proposed inclusion of these towns. In Scotland 
the people are very strong Sabbatarians, and previous 
to 1828 they were accustomed to Sunday closing 
under the common law; yet the measure gave great 
trouble in Glasgow for many years. In "Wales, 
also far more Sabbatarian than England, it has 
given much trouble in Cardiff and is still strongly 
resented by a section of the people. A sanguine 
mind may overlook these facts in contemplating the 
general success of Sunday closing, but they have 
a serious significance for the chances of its accept- 
ance in England, with her great industrial districts 
and vast urban populations, whose views, habits, 
and temper differentiate them strongly from the 
Celtic sections of the kingdom. The English are 
drinkers of draught beer and they like to have it 
fresh. They have been accustomed to have it so for 
centuries, and the privilege is dear to them, especially 
on Sundays. The Scotsman and the Irishman can 
have a bottle of whisky to tide them over the day, 
and the Welshman has his own way of spending 
Sunday; but the Englishman wants the pot of 
beer that his soul loves. Now he is law-abiding so 
long as he has what he considers his rights, but 
touch them and he becomes the most rebellious, 
stubborn, and intractable creature in existence. He 
has freedom in his bones, as no other man has* 
The Celt is different; he is more used to submit 



THEIR APPLICATION 199 

and comparatively docile, outwardly at least in the 
presence of force; he will stand compulsion in 
personal matters, and so will other races; but the 
Englishman will not. It merely arouses an infi- 
nite determination to resist. If you can per- 
suade him that he is better without his Sunday 
beer, he will give it up; but so long as he sees no 
harm in it, the attempt to take it from him against 
his will would be a most hazardous experiment. I 
do not know how those who advocate it have arrived 
at the opinion that the step would be acceptable. 
They may be right, but that was not the opinion 
of several witnesses before the Royal Commission 
who were familiar with the habits of the people, and 
my own observation coincides with theirs. At any 
rate it will be generally conceded that total Sunday 
closing would be a more violent and risky interference 
with long-established habits than earlier closing at 
night in the week, and less effective in preventing 
drunkenness. 

The foregoing suggestions do not pretend to 
exhaust the subject; there are other details which 
might be dealt with on the same lines. Nor are they 
put forward as a comprehensive programme, but 
rather to illustrate the spirit in which practical and 
effective legislation should be approached. The 
main thing is to aim at a definite and attainable 
object — pick out a bird within range and eschew 
speculative shots in the hope of hitting something. 
The only thing they hit is a beater. 



200 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



CHAPTER IX 

i . i 

THE ENGLISH PUBLIC-HOUSE 

The publican's is not a nice trade, and the average 
public-house is not a nice place; at the worst it is 
horrible. But to do the publican justice, the fault 
is less often on his than on the other side of the bar. 
It is the customers that make the place so detest- 
able; they would make any place detestable. I am 
sure that many publicans would never have gone 
into the business if they had known what they 
would have to contend with. I have been in public- 
houses in bad parts of London, and have seen the 
landlord in a state of obvious terror, vainly endeav- 
ouring with all his might to keep order among his 
customers, who were not drunk, merely brutal. I 
know other large public-houses, enormously fre- 
quented, where perfect order is maintained, but 
only by sheer force, instantly and ruthlessly applied. 
Such large houses can afford to keep a strong force 
on hand. The customers know it and very rarely 
give occasion for its exercise; but though quiet and 
orderly, the place is repellent by reason of the 
demeanour of the people, who do not show to 
advantage when enjoying themselves together. 



THE ENGLISH PUBLIC-HOUSE 201 

Taken alone I have not the slightest doubt that 
each individual would appear very different ; all sorts 
of good qualities — qualities that make one ashamed 
of oneself — are often hidden under the most degraded 
exterior — extraordinary kindness and self-sacrifice, 
for instance; but company has the singular effect of 
making many persons put their worst foot forward, 
so to speak. The weakness is not confined to any 
class, but since the lowest and the roughest take 
their pleasure at the public-house, it is there that 
everything most brutal in our populace is concen- 
trated and made prominent. 

I am not concerned to make a hero or a martyr 
of the publican, who is very much like other trades- 
men. His object is to make money. Sometimes he 
takes a pride in the respectable conduct of his trade 
and in the good name of his house; but sometimes 
it is only fear of the law that keeps him straight, 
and when he gets a chance of transgressing with 
impunity he grasps it. The combination of the vile 
landlord with vile customers produces an abominable 
result. Some brewers, who own public-houses, un- 
doubtedly connive at it. They treat the publican 
who gets caught without mercy, but they practically 
force him to run the risk, just as some shipowners 
force their captains to overload. It is idle to deny 
that these things are done. Every one who is 
behind the scenes at all knows that they are. But 
my own observation leads me to agree with the 
police, who testify generally that the great majority 
of the licensed houses are conducted with care. 



202 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

That is, perhaps, more often recognised than it used 
to be quite a few years ago. There seems to be, at 
any rate, less violent denunciation of the trade as a 
whole; but I do not think the conditions under 
which the traffic is carried on are fully realised. 
There is still a great tendency to place all the 
responsibility on the shoulders of those who supply 
a commodity demanded by the mass of our people 
and to exonerate those whose demand creates and 
maintains the traffic. The publican is charged, 
in effect, with creating the demand as well as the 
supply, and, more explicitly, with promoting the ex- 
cesses of those who exceed. I am sure that this is 
less true of the publican than of other tradesmen. 
None makes so little effort to beguile customers into 
buying what they do not want. He treats them, 
indeed, with a curious indifference which would ruin 
any other business. In drink-shops frequented by the 
common people I have repeatedly been struck by the 
singular relation between buyer and seller, which is 
the reverse of that seen in other shops. It is all cold 
business, without the semblance of friendly interest. 
The customer receives no invitation or welcome, but 
is regarded with an air of suppressed and watchful 
hostility as a potential enemy who may give trouble 
by creating a disturbance or cheating the landlord. 

Let us go down into a working-class district in 
the East of London. The population includes 
general labourers, dockers, lightermen, stevedores, 
sail and block makers, iron workers, cabinet makers, 
carmen, tramway hands, and others — in short, a large 



THE ENGLISH PUBLIC-HOUSE 203 

variety of skilled and unskilled labour — and there is, 
of course, as there is almost everywhere, a certain 
proportion of people belonging to a superior class, 
such as tradesmen, dock officials, and small employers 
of labour. Public-houses are thick on the ground, 
both beer-shops and ale-houses, as the fully licensed 
establishments are technically called; you may 
count more than a dozen, large and small, in 300 
yards of street. In the daytime they are neither 
very conspicuous nor very attractive, but at night 
the gas-light in the window shows them up when 
the shops are shut or where there are no shops. 

The Exterior, — A great deal is made of this 
point, and no doubt many people honestly believe 
that the ' flaring lights ' of the ' gin-palace ' do 
exercise an appreciable influence on the habits of the 
poor, who are supposed to find them irresistibly 
alluring. It sounds plausible, and the picturesque 
contrast between the cheerfully lighted house and its 
squalid customers kindles a sympathetic imagination 
to flights of fancy, but a nearer view will show that 
there is very little in it except words. In the first 
place, you will notice that the public-house lights 
are no more flaring than any others. A large 
establishment makes a show because it is large, but 
it makes less show than a shop of the same size, and 
that is equally true of the small one. Here, for 
instance, are the windows of a newsvendor, a 
tobacconist, an eating-house, and a grocer, all far 
more showily lighted than the drink-shops hard by. 
In the second place you will notice that the most 



204 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

brilliant establishments do not by any means attract 
the most customers. Here, for example, is a really 
showy exterior, bright with mahogany mouldings 
and stained glass quite in the most modern West 
End style. If you look in you will see that it is 
pretty nearly empty, while the comparatively 
obscure and dingy place over the way is crowded. 
Ask any of the men present why they prefer the 
second, and they will say ' Better stuff here. ' Again, 
you may notice that the majority of the customers 
are habitues and more or less known to the people 
behind the bar; in other words, their patronage is 
deliberately bestowed on the establishment which 
suits them best, and that is the one where they get 
the best value for their money according to their 
taste. They will go considerable distances and pass 
many public-houses in order to reach the one of their 
choice, and its external appearance is a matter of 
absolute indifference. But I have already discussed 
this point (p. 146), and will say no more about it 
here. 

The Interior. — Let us choose a typical house and 
go inside. Call it the Blue Boar, and say the hour 
is 9 p.m. The house has a long frontage towards 
the main road and extends round the corner into 
a by-street. It is entered by several doors, and each 
opens into a separate compartment of the bar-room, 
which but for the dividing partitions would be an 
extensive saloon fully seventy feet in length. This 
arrangement in compartments is peculiar to the 
British urban public-house, and is designed partly 



THE ENGLISH PUBLIC-HOUSE 205 

for the sake of greater privacy, partly to diminish 
the chances of disorder and to assist the landlord in 
quelling it when it arises. The second is the chief 
object in places frequented by the lower classes, 
while privacy gratifies, or is understood to gratify, 
customers of superior station. The Blue Boar 
entertains both, having two or three compartments 
at one end rather more comfortable than the rest, 
and further protected from the public gaze by a 
glass screen, running along the counter, but raised 
sufficiently above it to allow glasses to be passed 
underneath. This screening off of customers may, 
perhaps, be taken for a sign of grace indicating 
recognition of the growth of public opinion against 
bar-loafing, and especially in women, who seem to 
desire privacy the most. The opposite notion that 
it represents the falling away of a previously virtuous 
class through the arts of the publican rests on the 
erroneous belief — already disproved — that women 
used not to frequent the public-house. Absence of 
screens does not deter ; it makes them bold. The rest 
of the Blue Boar bar is quite open, and the sons of 
toil stand at it without fear and without reproach. 
Some bare wooden benches adorn most of the 
compartments, but they are little used. The floor is 
sawdusted, filthy with spilt liquor and expectoration, 
the counter sloppy with beer marks, which are 
periodically wiped down by a barmaid wielding a 
wet cloth. On the other side all is bright, clean, 
spick-and-span; the attendants, who include the 
1 governor, ' the ' missus, ' and three or four girls, are 



206 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

tidy, quiet, and active. This is one of the roughest 
houses in a very rough neighbourhood, but no fault 
can be found with the management. At the present 
moment the customers are equally quiet. They 
number about fifty, and are scattered along the bar 
in the different compartments, some sitting down, 
more standing up, smoking and talking quietly. 
Itinerant vendors of matches and penny songs come 
and go. A tall young fellow, perfectly sober, tries 
very hard to engage the barmaids in conversation, 
but without much success. 

The Liquor. — What are they drinking? At the 
superior end some Scotch whiskies may be seen, a 
young sailor orders a rum hot, and a woman of the 
pavement at my elbow asks for a two of gin cold, 
which she sits down to enjoy at her leisure; but for 
the rest it is all beer. Pewter pots line the counter 
from end to end. Several kinds of beer are sold at 
these houses, but the working man confines himself 
mainly to the two cheapest, which are technically 
called ' beer ' and ' ale.' The former is a very dark 
opaque liquid of the same colour as porter, but 
much weaker, and it costs 3d. the pot (i.e. quart), or 
Id. the glass. ' Ale/ otherwise called i four ale,' or 
1 mild/ is clear, but rather dark in colour, and costs 
4d. the pot, or Id. the glass. Both are very weak. 
The stronger beers are ' stout/ ' bitter/ and the 
variety known as ' old/ * strong/ or ' Burton ' ale; 
all of which are the same as those sold at refresh- 
ment bars and superior public-houses in other parts 
of the town. They cost 2d. the glass and Id. or 8d. 



THE ENGLISH PUBLIC-HOUSE 207 

the quart. German beer may also be had, but is not 
much patronised, and the same may be said of bot- 
tled ales. Half glasses of bitter are sold, but the 
favourite articles, constituting 90 per cent, of the 
orders, are the cheap ' ale ' and ' beer.' The house 
is ' tied/ and to a famous firm. Attracting the 
notice of an attendant with some difficulty, I order a 
glass of ' ale/ and find it a perfectly clean, honest 
liquor, but watery. Better stuff may be had in the 
neighbourhood for the same money, but this is, 
nevertheless, beyond the suspicion of injurious 
adulteration, and, to my taste, both a more honest 
and a more palatable beer than the renowned ' bitter ' 
brewed by Messrs. Blank's great firm, and dispensed 
at a thousand luxurious bars. No charge has been 
more often brought against the brewer and the pub- 
lican than that of contributing to drunkenness and 
crime by poisoning the working man with bad stuff. 
None is more easily tested by personal observation, 
and I venture to say that no man who takes the 
trouble so to test it to-day in our urban centres of 
population will find any evidence to support it. 
Once it was true. The House of Commons inquiry 
in 1854 brought out some amusing old recipes 
for adulteration, which appear to have done duty 
ever since. The evil was attributed, as by the 
House of Lords Committee in 1850 (it is extraor- 
dinary what a number of these Select Committees 
there have been), to the tied-house system, but it 
really dates from a far earlier period. There is 
evidence that sophistication of liquor was practised 



208 DEINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

as far back as the time of Edward III., and that it 
continued down to a comparatively recent period. 
In the eighteenth century we get some curious 
information about the ' honest malt and hops ' of the 
' good old days.' In 1790 Samuel Child, a brewer, 
published a pamphlet on the ' art and mystery of 
brewing porter, ale, twopenny, and table beer/ with 
the laudable intention of enabling people to brew 
their own beer ' of the same quality as in a brewery. ' 
The directions for porter are explicit: 

* Take 1 quarter of malt, 8 lbs. of hops, 6 lbs. of 
treacle, 8 lbs. of liquorice root, 8 lbs. of essentia bina 
(moist sugar), 8 lbs. of " colour/' \ oz. capsicum, 2 
oz. Spanish liquorice, 1 oz. cocculus indicus, 2 drachms 
salt of tartar, ^ oz. " heading " (alum and copperas), 
3 oz. ginger, 4 oz. slaked lime, 1 oz. linseed, 2 oz. 
cinnamon water/ 

These ingredients, he continues, ' however perni- 
cious they may appear, must invariably be used by 
those who wish to continue the taste, flavour, and 
appearance which they have been accustomed to.' 
For ale other things of a ' vehemently poisonous and 
stupefying quality ' are given. 

Another writer in 1795 mentions cocculus 
indicus, aloes, Bohemian rosemary, opium, tobacco, 
henbane, and wormwood, as used to brew London 
porter. The gentleman who gave expert evidence 
in 1854 mentioned some of these drugs, but did 
not venture to assert that they were still used 
at that time. It is quite certain that they are 
not used now. The object has disappeared with 






THE ENGLISH PUBLIC-HOUSE 209 

the changed conditions of the traffic. When 
there were no hours of closing and no penalties for 
permitting drunkenness it was obviously to the pub- 
lican's advantage to stupefy his customers so that 
they remained on the premises and began drinking 
again, on coming to, so long as they had any money. 
Now he has to turn them out at closing time and is 
liable to get into trouble if they are in a very bad 
state; so that, apart from adulteration Acts, he has 
every inducement not to drug them. 

No doubt other ingredients besides malt and hops 
are used in brewing; the law allows it, and to some^ 
extent seasonal difficulties render it necessary; but 
that stupefying or thirst-creating drugs are used in 
such quantities as to produce those effects is proved 
to be a complete fable by the regular analyses of 
the Inland Revenue Board, and by the evidence of 
one's own senses. A slight excess of salt in some 
cases is the only charge of any importance sustained 
by analysis, and that only in such measure as may 
be accounted for by the amount of salt naturally 
present in the water used for brewing. No one with 
a sensitive palate can fail to notice that draught beer 
is very often watered, and that some kinds — par- 
ticularly porter and bitter — generally contain other 
things besides malt, hops, and sugar; but the town 
working man's small-beer, if more open to the 
former charge, is less guilty of the latter than more 
pretentious beers, and in any case the foreign sub- 
stances are not injurious to health, still less conducive 
to intoxication, which is the very thing the publican 



210 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

wishes to avoid. As for spirits, analysis has for 
some years practically failed to find any adulteration 
except water, and * the old practice of adding various 
chemicals to conceal the loss of strength seems to 
have been abandoned ' (Report 1890-1). The vision 
of the honest toiler stupefied by narcotics in his beer, 
or raving under the influence of vitriolic spirits, has 
no bodily counterpart in the public-house. What 
power, by the by, there is in a word! Vitriol 
sounds capable of anything, but, as a matter of fact, 
in such a diluted form as alone is swallowable it is a 
capital stomachic and general tonic, having no effect 
on the brain whatever. Taste is another matter, and 
personally I think the modern substitute-brewed 
bitter beer and patent-still spirits very nasty. But 
the spirits are highly rectified and contain little or 
no ' fusel oil; ' and the beer is very light. ' Four 
ale ' is at least as weak as lager; it takes gallons to 
make a man drunk, but then, they drink gallons. 

Drunkards. — We are still at the Blue Boar, 
watching the working man slowly consume his beer, 
the while he converses with his mates. A glass lasts 
him perhaps half an hour, and if he wants another 
he has to call for it. Customers come and go, but 
not one exhibits a sign of intoxication. In his * Seven 
Curses of London/ Mr. James Greenwood draws 
attention to the small proportion of drunkenness to be 
seen in the public-house compared with the amount 
of drinking; and he suggests that 100 men should 
be set to watch 100 houses, and note the sobriety of 
those leaving them. This is the only piece of direct 



THE ENGLISH PUBLIC-HOUSE 211 

observation and the only plea for that method of 
studying the facts that I have been able to discover 
in the entire mass of literature on the subject. My 
own experience entirely corroborates his, but I should 
say that moderate drinkers are in a far stronger 
majority to-day than even when he wrote. I am 
confident that out of 100 persons whom you see 
drinking on any given night you will not find more 
than one drinking to excess; and I believe that the 
average proportion of moderate to excessive drinkers 
is very much greater than 100 to 1. On the other 
hand the visible good behaviour is in some, and per- 
haps a good many, cases only skin deep. And, as luck 
will have it, here, in this quiet public-house, a dra- 
matic incident suddenly occurs under our very noses, 
which throws a strong light on the subject. Two 
workmen come in perfectly sober, and one of them 
stands treat for two glasses of ale. His mate is in the 
act of drinking when the door opens, and two terrible- 
looking women rush in. The elder is a wretched 
hag, who has already c had a drop ; ' the other, a big 
heavily built woman, is perfectly sober and in deadly 
tragic earnest, her eyes blazing with excitement out 
of her broad, flat, livid face. She is ragged and 
filthy, and carries a baby, six or eight months old, 
more dirty and ragged than herself. 

1 So IVe caught you, have I, ye scoundrel? 
Drinking again? And where did you get the money 
from? ' she shrieks. 

1 This gentleman gave me a glass of beer, that's all, 
sheepishly answers the man, indicating his friend. 



212 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

* Then he's as bad as you, ye scoundrel. You've 
left me and the children to starve — me and the four 
bits of children. Ay,' she continues, raising her 
voice and shouting at him for every one to hear, l you 
had two pounds on Friday, and what did you bring 
home for me and the children? Not one farthing 
— not that much! You took it all, and us with 
nothing in the house. And when you come home 
drunk and I rummaged in your pockets like a thief 
what did I find? Seven and threepence. Two 
pounds on Friday night and spent it all but seven 

and threepence among the , ye scoundrel! 

And me a stranger here all alone without father or 
mother or sister or brother! I'm going into the 
workhouse at ten o'clock to-morrow morning, me 
and the four bits of kids, so help me God! But out 
you go out of here, or I'll twist your head off. I'm 
your lawful wedded wife, ain't I? ' 

' Yes,' from the man, though she wears no 
wedding-ring — pawned, no doubt. 

1 And you leave me and the children to starve 
with two pounds in your pocket. You left us once 
before without that much,' showing the tip of her 
little finger, ' and then there were three children. 
Now there are four. Out ye go! ' He has not a 
word to say. 

She drags him to the door, thrusts him through, 
and as he disappears bangs him savagely between the 
shoulders. 

Not a word has been spoken by any bystander. 
The woman has raised a tremendous din and used 



THE ENGLISH PUBLIC-HOUSE 213 

much language which cannot be written down, but no 
one behind the bar has interfered; her voice has the 
ring of truth, and it is felt that she is in the right. 

Now this incident brings us face to face with 
the central crux of the drink question. Drunkards 
may be broadly divided into three classes: (1) the 
accidental, (2) the deliberate, and (3) the inveterate 
or dipsomaniac. The first class is of little importance, 
excepting so far as it leads to the second. The 
victim is generally young, always sick and sorry 
after the event, and easily amenable to good 
influences. The third class, again, belongs almost 
entirely to the higher ranks of life, so far as the 
men are concerned. I speak of England; in Scot- 
land the case is different. The English working 
man is very seldom a dipsomaniac, that is, a creature 
possessed by a morbid longing for drink; for two 
reasons: he works off the effects of liquor by the 
physical exertion involved in his occupation, but 
still more because he is essentially a beer-drinker, 
and beer rarely causes that degeneration of the 
nerves to which dipsomania is due. Drunken 
women, on the other hand, are generally gin-drinkers 
and dipsomaniacs. 

For dipsomaniacs there is only one treatment: 
complete and forced abstinence from drink. There 
remains the second class, the deliberate drunkard, 
and by that I mean a man who gets drunk often, 
even regularly, and intentionally. He is the centre 
of the problem as a social evil: his habits are the 
cause of most of the misery, pauperism, cruelty, and 



214 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

crime attributed to drink. Take him away and the 
evil shrinks to comparatively small proportions. 
The man we have just seen turned out belongs to 
this class, and he is worth some attention. Is he a 
miserable, degraded, sodden creature, the degenerate 
offspring of degenerate parents? Not the least in 
the world. He is a fine healthy man of about 
thirty-six, with an open countenance, a wholesome 
complexion, and a clear eye. A rivetter by trade, he 
earns good wages, as his wife has just told us. If he 
chose he could keep a comfortable and happy home, 
but the appearance of the woman and child shows 
that it is wretched, dirty, and poverty-stricken. The 
explanation is that he is just a self-indulgent fellow 
fond of pleasure, and that he finds it in company 
and drink. He has no ' craving ' for alcohol, and 
can keep sober as easily as you or I, if he chooses; 
but he does not choose. He deliberately prefers to 
drink and to spend his money on what he considers 
a jolly evening. 1 There are worse than he, because 
at least he earns the money himself, but he 
represents the type morally, and in ten years may 
have become one of the * unemployed,' living on his 
wife and children. What is to be done with this 
1 victim ' of the liquor traffic ? For my part I should 
hold him responsible for his own conduct and make 

1 1 have quoted Defoe on this head in a previous chapter. 
Captain Marryatt has a character, illustrating a minor degree 
of the same thing, in the person of a Thames bargeman who 
indignantly denies that he is a ' drunkard,' but every now and 
then gets deliberately drunk and freely announces his intention 
beforehand. "Cos why?' he says. "Cos I chooses/ That is 
perfectly true to life. 



THE ENGLISH PUBLIC-HOUSE 215 

him smart for it, if I were asked how to cure him. 
At present everything is made easy for him, as I 
have pointed out before. We encourage him by 
taking care of his family, helping him home when he 
is drunk, seeing that he does not get run over or 
break his neck, and in a word protecting him from 
the consequences of his own acts. The temperance 
people further encourage him by telling him that he 
is the victim of the public-house (at which he grins 
in his sleeve), and that they are going to protect 
him by shutting it up. 

Let us ask an expert witness what he thinks 
of it. A working man at my side has watched the 
whole scene, and now gives me the opportunity by 
opening conversation on his own account. 

1 You haven't seen a bit like that, sir, for a long 
time, 111 be bound. Lord, she give it him straight, 
and no mistake, didn't she? ' 

' She did. When one sees a thing like that one 
does not wonder that people talk so much about the 
evils of the liquor traffic, and want to do something to 
stop it. Now, public-houses are very thick about 
here; do you think it would have any effect if half 
of them were shut up ? ' 

' It would have just this effect, that the rest would 
get the custom of the ones shut up.' 

1 But suppose they were all shut up ? ' 

1 Well, I can tell you what would happen then. 9 

1 What?' 

1 They would drink in private houses. What's to 
prevent 'em? Three or four chaps would just club 



216 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



together and get in a cask. You see, what they 
want is the company, the pipe, and the glass of 
beer; but if they had it in a private house they 
would drink more. In course they would, it stands 
to reason, 'cos there 'd be no one to look after 'em. ' 

He knows nothing of prohibition laws, being an 
ignorant man, but he has accurately stated their 
known effects, because he thoroughly understands the 
drinker. 

The Publican and Drunkenness. — The company, 
the pipe, and the glass of beer! Moderate temper- 
ance reformers would be quite satisfied with that 
programme, but under present conditions, they say, 
the glass of beer is multiplied indefinitely to the point 
of intoxication, and they are quite right. For this 
they blame the publican, who is alleged to encourage 
intemperance by ' pushing the sale ' of drink, and 
serving those who have already had too much. The 
first charge is so absolutely contrary to my own 
experience that I have often tried to ascertain from 
those who used the argument on what evidence it 
rests, and the only answer I have ever been able to 
get is that it stands to reason. It may stand to 
reason, but does it stand to fact? What is our 
experience this evening? Here am I, a customer 
obviously with money, standing for forty minutes at 
the bar of this public-house, and not once have I 
even been asked if they can serve me with anything. 
One glass of beer I obtained by calling for it. The 
working men along the counter have been even 
more neglected. A new-comer is occasionally asked 



THE ENGLISH PUBLIC-HOUSE 217 

what he will take, but far more often he has to call. 
As for pressing anything upon anybody, there is not 
the slightest attempt at such a thing. Let us leave 
the Blue Boar and walk up the street, looking in for a 
moment at the other publics in passing. Everywhere 
the same scene, except that the attendants are more 
often men or lads than women — the same sort of 
customers standing at the bar, talking and smoking, 
with the same pots of beer before them, the at- 
tendants answering calls with greater or less alacrity. 
They are fairly, not especially, busy, but if you step 
up to the bar several minutes at least will elapse 
before any offer is made to serve you, and unless 
you render yourself pretty conspicuous the chances 
are that none will be made at all. The difficulty 
in all these places is not to avoid drink but to get 
served. In any case the invitation is nothing more 
pressing than ' What can I get you? ' In truth, the 
theory of pushing the sale does not stand to reason. 
The number of articles on sale in a public-house 
is very limited, they are all of the same class, and 
customers know exactly what they want. The 
publican exercises no influence over them whatever, 
and would only be laughed at if he attempted it. 
I have asked a prominent temperance reformer, 
who spoke of pushing the sale, how it was done. 
The table stood between us, and I said, ' Here is the 
bar, I am a customer, you the publican; show me 
how you would push the sale ; begin ! ' He was taken 
completely aback, and could only reply that it had 
never been put to him like that before. Again, it 



218 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

is thought that the publican is reluctant to sell 
temperance drinks, and that a good deal might be 
done by exchanging him for some one having an 
interest in selling them. We will go into the Rose 
and Crown and see. I ask the landlord for a bottle 
of lemonade and he gives it me at once. 

1 You don't mind selling this then? 9 I ask. 

' Not at all. It's all one to me, or rather, to tell 
the truth, I prefer selling temperance drinks, as 
I make more profit on them. I keep all sorts, 
lemonade, gingerade, ginger-beer, and mineral 
waters. People have whatever they ask for. I have 
about one hundred teetotalers in during the week, 
and they are served with their lemonade or anything 
they like the same as anybody else.' 

But there is one thing, at any rate, the publican 
can do for temperance, and that is, refuse to serve 
a person who has already had too much. Moreover, 
he is bound to do it by the Act of 1872, under a 
penalty of 10Z. for the first offence, and 20Z. for the 
second. His enemies have a real handle against 
him here, for the record of convictions, which can 
only represent a fraction of the offences, proves that 
too many publicans are lax upon this point. Un- 
doubtedly there is room for improvement, especially 
in villages and small places; but in large, well- 
policed centres of population, the possibilities of 
improvement are fewer than they may seem at first 
sight. An incident in this very public-house throws 
a light on the question. A woman of the poorest 
class, with bare head and shawl — probably Irish — is 



THE ENGLISH PUBLIC-HOUSE 219 

sitting quietly on the bench having a glass of * four 
ale.' Presently she begins to talk to herself. ' I 
was drunk o' Palm Sunday/ she says meditatively; 
1 drunk o' Palm Sunday.' Then rising to her feet 
and flinging up her right hand dramatically, she 
shouts, ' And may the Lord bless him as give me 
the job to earn the money — and that's Mr. Levi. 
May the Lord bless 'm anschildnschildn — and 
proshperm! ' She is drunk, not badly, but still un- 
deniably drunk. She wants another glass. * No, 
missis, that's enough for you — you had better be off 
home.' And she goes. 

6 Why did you serve her at all? ' I ask. 

i She had no appearance of being drunk when she 
came in.' 

And indeed she had not when I first saw her. 

' You see,' continues the landlord, l it's impossible 
to tell sometimes. Suppose I'm at the other end 
of the bar; some one comes in here, steadies himself 
up against the counter, and calls for a drink. I 
haven't seen him come in, his voice is all right, and 
he is standing steady with his hand on the counter. 
I can't possibly know he's drunk. We never serve 
them if we do know; it's not to our interest, as they 
are likely to annoy other customers/ 

The experience of the Scandinavian ' managed ' 
houses fully confirms this; with the best will in the 
world to prevent it, drunken people are still served. 

Women and Children in the Public-house. — The 
foregoing incident suggests a reference to the most 
deplorable feature of our liquor traffic, and one 



220 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

peculiar to ourselves. We have not exactly a 
monopoly of female drunkenness, but we have far 
more than any of our neighbours, and in no other 
country is it the custom for women and children 
to frequent the public-house as it is with us. The 
women are dreadful beyond all description. When 
once they take to it, they are more often drunk than 
the men, more violent, shameless, degraded, and 
incurable. In other words, they become real 
dipsomaniacs, and the habit of gin-drinking is the 
cause. So long as they confine themselves to beer 
they can retain some self-control, and no great harm 
is done; but women take very readily to spirits, 
because this concentrated form of alcohol heartens 
them up in the moments of weakness, pain, and 
depression entailed by their sex and want of physical 
strength. It is difficult to see, however, why our 
women should be so peculiarly given to the vice, 
except that public opinion in their own class 
attaches less shame to it than elsewhere. Appar- 
ently the infection caught them when first the 
wave of spirit- drinking, introduced from Holland 
and Germany, spread over this country at the 
end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, and the tradition has remained 
ever since. Happily it is now much less prevalent 
than formerly. We have certainly improved since 
the days of 1830, when seventy-two cases were 
brought to Bow Street on a Monday ' for absolute 
and beastly drunkenness, and what was worse, they 
were mostly women who had been picked up in the 



THE ENGLISH PUBLIC-HOUSE 221 

streets, where they had fallen dead drunk ; ' and the 
following little scene emphasises this more cheerful 
view of the question. A woman stands at the half- 
open door of a public-house as we pass, and calls to 
a man inside to come out. 

1 Come in, mate,' he shouts back, ' don't be a 
fool.' 

1 No/ she says, ' I shan't; I'm nearly tipsy 
already. Come on home.' And he comes. 

Children in the public-house are, I believe, quite 
peculiar to this country. You see them of all ages, 
from extreme infancy upwards. Here, for instance, 
are two girls having glasses of stout, not in a hurry, 
but sitting down for a good long stay, and one of 
them suckles a baby not more than a fortnight old. 
In all cases the parents are wholly responsible. You 
never see children frequenting the public-house on 
their own account; they are either brought by their 
parents or sent to fetch beer. I have never seen 
any reason to suppose that the law about serving 
children is broken. Boys who find their way into 
the public-house to sell things are turned out 
promptly. The parents, however, not only bring 
them in, but teach them to drink. I lately saw a 
respectable-looking couple take four young children, 
the youngest in arms, into a public-house, and when 
they came out they were all wiping their mouths. 
I ventured to ask them if they thought it the right 
thing to do, and the man, to do him justice, did seem 
ashamed of himself. The woman, having nothing 
to say in defence of her conduct, took refuge in 



222 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

abusing me. It is done, as I have already pointed 
out, in ignorance and thoughtlessness from a mistaken 
idea of kindness. It could only be prevented by pro- 
hibiting children under a certain age from entering 
licensed premises at all; and that is impossible so 
long as the law makes no distinction between hotels 
and pothouses. 

Betting in Public-houses. — This is the greatest 
blot on the liquor trade, because it is deliberately 
countenanced, encouraged, and even carried on by 
some publicans; but it is confined to particular 
houses in particular quarters, and therefore a brief 
reference will suffice. Of course it is illegal, and 
the police know all about it, because they receive 
innumerable complaints from the relatives of those 
who squander their money in this fatuous way, but 
convictions are hard to obtain. The disappearance 
or reform of the public-house would not diminish the 
practice in the very slightest degree, as it would be 
carried on in shops and clubs, which are already more 
extensively used for the purpose than licensed 
premises. 

To conclude this little study from the life, let 
me add that neither the occasion nor the locality 
was specially selected, and that the scenes and 
incidents presented themselves exactly as described 
in the course of a single evening. Similar scenes 
may be witnessed at any time in any working-class 
neighbourhood. The chief lesson to be drawn is 
the one with which I began. The public-house is 
not a nice place, but the fault lies mainly with the 



THE ENGLISH PUBLIC-HOUSE 223 

customers. It can only become a nice place through 
an organic social change in which they share. The 
notion that its character can be revolutionised by 
any ' system ? by providing meals or investing 
lemonade with ' prestige ' — whatever that curious ex- 
pression may mean — is quite illusory. I notice that 
at one of the model public-houses the average daily 
takings in 1901 were 101. 13s. 6d. for liquor, and 85. 
Id. for food. That corresponds exactly with the ex- 
pectations formed from observation. The people buy 
what they want, which is liquor; and they will go 
on buying it. But we can insist that they shall buy 
in a decent and orderly manner. 

It should be understood that I have only been 
describing the liquor traffic as it exists in populous 
places. In rural districts the conditions differ con- 
siderably. They will be discussed in the next chapter. 



224 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



CHAPTER X 

THE MODEL PUBLIC-HOUSE 

The interesting scheme initiated by Lord Grey 
for the systematic establishment of model public- 
houses on the Scandinavian company principle has 
deservedly attracted much favourable attention. 
The scheme is the formation of trusts, by counties, 
for running public-houses under disinterested man- 
agement, the surplus profits after payment of 5 per 
cent, being devoted to public and philanthropic 
purposes. This is the Scandinavian principle, but 
not, it must be understood, applied as in Scan- 
dinavia. There all the licenses for retailing spirits 
in a town are taken over by the company, which 
consequently has a monopoly and complete control 
as to number of houses, hours of sale, price of liquor, 
&c. This is the Scandinavian system, of which 
more details are given in the next chapter. The 
county trust scheme, on the other hand, only affects 
isolated houses as opportunity arises, either by 
obtaining a new license or taking over an old one, 
and is not likely to enjoy a monopoly except in 
small places. Elsewhere it must enter into compe- 
tition with the ordinary trade, and it is of course 



THE MODEL PUBLIC-HOUSE 225 

subject to the same legal and administrative control. 
It is not altogether a new thing, but is rather an 
organised extension of a movement begun some 
years ago by individual owners of public-houses, and 
it has therefore some experience to go upon. The 
earliest pioneer was the Eev. Osbert Mordaunt, 
rector of Hampton Lucy, in Warwickshire, where 
he has conducted the village inn at the sign of the 
Boar's Head for more than twenty-five years. What- 
ever credit is due for initiating model public-houses 
in England on the Scandinavian principle belongs 
to Mr. Mordaunt, whose personally conducted ex- 
periment forms a genuine object-lesson and at the 
same time throws an incidental light on some points 
in connection with the general conduct of the liquor 
traffic. The many who are sympathetically or prac- 
tically interested in the trust scheme will find both 
instruction and encouragement in the story of the 
original model. 

Hampton Lucy is a typical English village with 
a population of about 460 and a single public- 
house. It lies just outside Charlecote Park, midway 
between Warwick and Stratf ord-on-Avon, and several 
miles from a railway station. The conditions of 
life, therefore, are essentially rural and exactly like 
those to be found in innumerable villages throughout 
every part of the country. The circumstances of 
the public-house, however, are peculiar. It belongs 
to the parish. The late rector bought it from the 
former owner, and left it in his will to the parish 
under the sole trusteeship of the incumbent for the 



226 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

time being. The rent was to go to pay the village 
organist's salary in perpetuum, but no other stipula- 
tion was made. Accordingly Mr. Mordaunt, on 
succeeding to the living, found himself sole trustee 
of the property, and at liberty to administer it as he 
thought fit for the benefit of the place. At that 
time it was let in the usual way to a tenant and 
carried on as an ordinary public-house ; and the new 
rector at first made no attempt to alter the arrange- 
ment. Finding, however, that the house was 
conducted in a very unsatisfactory manner by the 
landlady in possession, the widow of the former 
publican, and that remonstrance was of no avail, he 
gave her six months' notice and got rid of her. 
The choice then lay between closing the house 
altogether and conducting it upon different lines. 
Some reformers would, of course, have no hesitation 
in such a case; they would close the accursed thing 
amid bonfires and other signs of public rejoicing, 
and then have the satisfaction of seeing another 
establishment, over which they would have no 
control, opened over the way in the course of a few 
months. Knowing this perfectly well, Mr. Mordaunt 
boldly resolved, on the suggestion of a friend, to run 
the place himself. The squire of the parish fell in with 
his views, and promised not to allow a rival estab- 
lishment to be started. A trustworthy manager was 
found in one of Mr. Mordaunt 's own servants, who 
gladly undertook to discharge the duties with the 
help of his wife in return for a small salary and the 
use of the house rent free. And so the Boar's Head 
was started as a model public-house in the year 1876. 



THE MODEL PUBLIC-HOUSE 227 

To-day, after twenty-five years, Mr. Mordaunt can 
look back on the results with complete satisfaction. 

The most important change introduced into the 
conduct of the house, next to the appointment of a 
salaried manager in lieu of a publican, was the 
withdrawal of spirits from the bar. This step 
caused a considerable outcry at first, especially, be it 
noted, on the part of the women, which confirms 
what I have previously said about the tendency of 
women to spirit-drinking. They declared that life 
would be endangered if they could not send out for 
a drop of brandy or gin upon occasion. The 
objection was met by adding spirits to the stock of 
simple medicines kept for the use of the villagers at 
the rectory, which almost adjoins the public-house, 
and, as it happened, no death occurred in the place 
for sixteen months after the change had been made, 
so the objection died away. No hardship is inflicted 
by withdrawing spirits from the village bar, because 
ample opportunity of buying it by the bottle is 
afforded to those who really need it, or think they 
need it, by the travelling grocers' carts. Mr. Mor- 
daunt, however, believes that much less is consumed 
when it has to be bought by the bottle than when 
a few pennyworths can be procured at a time over 
the counter. 

The next point that engaged his attention was 
the supply of good beer, and for some years it gave 
him no little trouble. * We tried several brewers,' 
he says, l with varying success. Some of them 
served us well at first; then, after a time, we have 



228 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

been compelled to make a change, because either the 
quality of the beer deteriorated, or the casks were 
not properly filled.' Deterioration in quality was at 
once made known by the complaints of customers, 
and diminution in quantity by the inadequate 
receipts per cask. That the charges were not 
fanciful is sufficiently proved by the fact that for 
several years now complete satisfaction has been 
given by one brewery, and no change has been found 
necessary. The beer is appreciated by the villagers, 
and has acquired a good name in the neighbourhood 
as superior to that sold in many other public-houses. 
The only other points to notice in connection with 
the conduct of the traffic are that credit was abol- 
ished, and serving drunken people of course strictly 
prohibited. No alteration was made in the house 
itself, or in the hours of closing. Profits from eatables 
and stabling horses go to the manager, but this item 
does not amount to much. 

The financial aspects of the venture are shown 
by the following table, which gives an average year's 

accounts : 

£ s. d. 

Receipts 31500 

Expenditure — 

Cost of Beer 216 

License 3 18 6 

Taxes and Insurance . . 4 10 

Repairs 4 18 

Fuel, Light, &c 14 10 

Rent 25 

Expenses of Management . . 16 

Charities 30 

Balance 3 6 

315 



THE MODEL PUBLIC-HOUSE 229 

The community benefits by the organist's salary, 
which is a first charge on the profits (represented by 
1 Bent ' in the table), and by about 30i. a year either 
distributed among the parishioners in charity, or 
otherwise applied according to the discretion of the 
rector, who retains the right to dispose of the 
money in the way he thinks most conducive to the 
public advantage. Thus, two years' profits were once 
devoted to improving the water-supply by sinking 
wells and erecting pumps — an ingenious method of 
harnessing the liquor traffic to the temperance car 
which ought to satisfy Sir Wilfrid Lawson himself. 
Another year, a windfall of 521. dropped in one week 
by a Volunteer camp hard by in Charlecote Park was 
applied to some other equally unexceptionable public 
purpose. As a rule, however, parish charities absorb 
the surplus profits. 

Before going on to discuss some of the points 
raised by the story of this model public-house, let 
us take one look at it. Neither within nor without 
does it differ appreciably from the ordinary rural 
pothouse. Of a plain and unpretentious exterior, 
it stands near the centre of the village, hard by the 
church and the rectory. The sign of the Boar's 
Head, nailed against the wall over the door, indicates 
the character of the establishment just as in its 
unregenerate days. Neither parade nor concealment 
has been attempted. Inside you have the ordinary 
tap-room, furnished with wooden seats and a small 
bar, and a larger parlour adjacent. During the major 
part of the day little business is done, and what 



230 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

there is can be easily attended to by the manager's 
wife, a tidy woman who can keep the accounts. 
With the exception of occasional passers-by, the 
customers are an almost constant quantity and 
regular in their habits. The same men come day 
by day and drink just about the same amount of 
beer, although no attempt is made to limit them, 
except, of course, by the condition of sobriety. They 
have their pint after dinner and their pint and a half 
or so again in the evening, when they come to sit 
and smoke, and discuss the weather and the crops. 
The liquor dispensed is light, but clean and palatable 
stuff. Drunkenness seldom occurs, and then only 
in persons who have come in from other places 
already the worse for liquor, and have been acci- 
dentally served with more. In short, the Hampton 
Lucy villager may fairly say in the words of the 
poet: 

f I takes my pipe, I takes my pot, 

And drunk I'm never seen to be: 
I'm no teetotaler or sot 

And as I am I means to be.' 









And a very good motto too, most people will think. 
Now the Boar's Head gives us a complete type 
of the village ale-house, and in considering its history 
the first thing to notice is that the conditions differ 
in many important respects from those of the town 
public-house, which I discussed in the last chapter. 
The alleged abuses which are imaginary or exceptional 
in the big town do really exist in the country. 
The Boar's Head was an establishment conducted in a 



THE MODEL PUBLIC-HOUSE 231 

disorderly manner, selling very queer liquor, con- 
stantly harbouring intoxicated persons, and evading 
the law as to hours of sale. According to my 
experience these things are more or less true of the 
majority of country publics, and the reasons are 
obvious enough: the publican has many inducements 
to go wrong and very few to go right. In the first 
place he is a poor man and has considerable diffi- 
culty in making both ends meet. If you turn back 
to the Boar's Head balance-sheet, you will see that 
after the beer and the license are paid for, the profits 
amount to 951., out of which 251. goes for rent and 
241. for other expenses, leaving 46Z. to live upon. 
Put in another way, the gross takings are 61. or say 
11. a week, out of which the net profit is less than 
21., while rent and other expenses come to about 20s., 
leaving less than 11. a week for living. This standing 
condition of poverty exercises an unfortunate influ- 
ence upon the conduct of the business. If the tenant 
is an industrious man he will combine the public- 
house with some other occupation, which practically 
turns his wife into the real landlord, and she being 
housekeeper, with the cares of the exchequer upon 
her, naturally troubles herself very little about any 
other consideration so long as she can make a bit 
more money. In the evening when his other work 
is done, her husband becomes virtually one of her 
customers, sitting companionably with the rest and 
encouraging them to drink by his example; for in 
the village public everybody sits and there is no 
bar between customers and publican as in the town 



232 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

house. If, on the other hand, the landlord is not 
an industrious man, he will to a dead certainty 
spend his time loafing and boozing, which deprives 
him of the authority even if he had the wish — which 
he has not — to deal as he ought with other boozers. 
The house of such a man becomes the rendezvous of 
hard drinkers. Further, in a village they are all 
neighbours and friends — or enemies; and the unfor- 
tunate publican with his small business, on which 
he can only just rub along at the best of times, 
cannot afford to offend his neighbours by refusing 
them drink, for instance. I have known half the 
regular customers of a village inn forsake it and 
take to spending their evenings in the cobbler's shop 
because they had some quarrel with the landlord ; and 
if I remember right he had to throw up the busi- 
ness. The same reasons tend to make the poor man 
lax about closing ; those who know the ropes can gen- 
erally get served during prohibited hours in a village 
public by judicious application made at a convenient 
side door. 

These positive inducements to go wrong do not 
exist in anything like the same degree for the town 
publican, and even if they did they would be checked 
by strong counter-inducements, which in their turn 
hardly affect the country publican. He has so little 
to lose that he does not mind incurring some risk 
of being turned out, whereas the other has generally 
a great deal to lose, having either invested a large 
sum of money of his own in the goodwill of the 
house or having run heavily into debt for the purpose. 



THE MODEL PUBLIC-HOUSE 233 

This necessarily tends to make him more careful 
about getting into trouble, and then the police look 
after him much more sharply than they can possibly 
do in the country. I do not suppose rural constables 
are any more * corrupt ' than their urban colleagues, 
but they are more likely to be on terms of friendly 
intimacy with the publican, they are fewer in number, 
and in all respects less smart. Life runs down the 
country road with an altogether easier, looser rein 
than on the city pavement. I have accompanied 
a village constable on his night patrol, and the good 
fellow produced a jug of beer left by the publican 
in a handy place of concealment, and hospitably 
shared its contents without a thought of reserve. 
The town bobby may sometimes know where to 
find a similar jug, but he would certainly keep the 
secret to himself, lest it should reach the ears of his 
inspector. And besides the comparative slackness 
of the police, the village landlord has another excuse 
for turning a blinder eye on his inebriated cus- 
tomers than the keeper of a town ' gin-palace ' 
can afford to do. The reckless blackguards frequent- 
ing the latter may break out into alarming violence 
at any moment, whereas the simple-minded rustics 
are seldom given to serious disorder even in their 
cups. A glass too much means stumbling home 
quietly without even l going large ' and still less 
1 raising Cain,' to use the classic phrases of modern 
literature. 

For all these reasons, then, the village pothouse 
is apt to be conducted with more or less deliberate 



234 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

disregard of sobriety and good order. And in the 
next place, the liquor is often of inferior quality. I 
have previously defended the liquor sold in town 
public-houses from the charge of injurious adultera- 
tion, and I have no doubt whatever that one of the 
main conditions which keep it up to the mark is the 
keen competition carried on in populous places. The 
working man knows good from bad when he gets 
the choice, just as well as anybody else — perhaps 
better, because his taste is not perverted by the 
vagaries of fashion or medical advice — and where 
many establishments compete for his patronage 
they are bound to maintain a good standard or 
find themselves deserted for their rivals. Country 
public-houses lack this salutary stimulus even when 
there are more than one in the same place, and the 
smallness of their profits constantly tempts to some 
tampering with the liquor. Mr. Mordaunt's ex- 
perience has led him to form strong opinions on the 
subject. ' If it is not common,' he says, l to add 
tobacco or salt or worse ingredients to the beer sold 
in some of our small public-houses, it must be often 
brewed from low-class materials for the sake of 
extra profit, which goes into the pockets of unscru- 
pulous brewers or publicans, or both.' He found 
in his own dealings, as I have already described, 
that attempts were made to tamper with both 
quality and quantity, and under the circumstances 
it looks as if the brewer must have been to blame. 
The excellence of the supply obtained at first from 
a new source and its subsequent deterioration are 



THE MODEL PUBLIC-HOUSE 235 

painfully familiar experiences to all of us in the 
case of other purveyors. Who does not know the 
grocer, the butcher, or the milkman, who, after 
treating us well for a time, has begun to l try it on ' 
with an inferior article ? And yet some of the firms 
with whom Mr. Mordaunt dealt were of such renown 
and doing so vast a trade that it could not possibly 
be worth their while to descend to base tricks for 
the sake of a few shillings. The fault may be 
neither with the publican nor with the brewer, but 
with a third individual who is often concerned, and 
that is the brewer's local agent. Partly filled casks 
particularly suggest this gentleman's intervention, 
and in one case Mr. Mordaunt had his suspicions 
very strongly pointed in that direction, though he 
never could prove it. In connection with bad liquor 
the question of ' tied ' houses occupies a good deal 
of attention; but probably the only man who really 
knows what influence the system exercises is the 
publican of varied experience, and it is just possible 
that he might not tell the exact truth about it. In 
the country, houses are not so much tied as owned 
by brewers, and if the firm is a large and prosperous 
one with a good name to lose, the probabilities are 
that for its own sake it will take care to maintain 
that good name. But that is not always the case. 
I have known a very large brewery supply one of 
its public-houses, where there was no competition, 
with the most offensive stuff, obviously consisting 
to a large extent of the rinsings and spillings which 
go back to the brewery and are sent out again to 



236 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

such lonely places. The men would not drink it 
and the unfortunate publican was at his wits' end. 
Houses in the hands of small or speculative brewers 
are often served with inferior stuff. In London 
comparatively few houses are owned by brewers, 
but a great many are tied in the sense of owing 
money advanced by way of loan to enable the 
publican to start business. In these cases, however, 
the terms of the bond only include malt liquors, and 
if the brewer serves him with bad stuff, the publican 
can go to another and obtain money from him to 
pay off the original loan. On the whole it is prob- 
able that the more the business passes into the hands 
of large and reputable firms the better. That is 
the universal experience in other concerns. But, 
however this may be, both systems are as old as the 
trade itself, and the story of the Boar's Head shows 
that the most perfect freedom from brewery control 
does not necessarily ensure excellence of liquor. Be- 
fore quitting this part of the subject it is only fair 
to add that Mr. Mordaunt has of late years modified 
his opinion about adulteration, which he does not 
think so bad as it used to be. It is clear, however, 
from his experience that trusts or private owners of 
model houses will have to keep a very watchful eye 
on their brewer and their manager. 

In addition to lax control and inferior liquor the 
country public-house differs in one other respect, 
namely, the maintenance of the credit system, which 
certainly makes for improvidence and intemperance. 
In spite of the Tippling Act, ale-house scores still 



THE MODEL PUBLIC-HOUSE 237 

appear to be paid, presumably as debts of honour; 
or it may be that the publican prefers the risk of 
losing his money to offending a neighbour. In town 
the thirsty but impecunious customer of the labouring 
class may whistle for his half -pint, except in times 
of strike or lock-out, when much indulgence is shown 
by kind-hearted publicans. 

It follows from the foregoing considerations that 
though drink is a much less serious evil in the 
country than in town, the conduct of the rural 
public-house is, speaking generally, far more open 
to improvement than that of the urban ' gin-palace/ 
which shows incidentally that the conduct of the 
house is only one among a number of factors in the 
problem. And the success of the Boar's Head 
proves that under certain circumstances all the 
improvement that any reasonable person can desire 
may be effected without injuring anybody and to 
the general advantage of the community. Tears ago 
Mr. Mordaunt suggested that what had been done 
at Hampton Lucy might be done in many other 
places. ' There are/ he said, ' many villages and 
country towns in which property is not divided, 
where the public-house or houses belong to one 
squire or landlord. Why should not such proprietors 
take the matter into their own hands — this could be 
done with very little trouble to themselves — and so 
promote health and sobriety among their people? 
By all means let respect be paid to the vested 
interests of really respectable publicans: it would 
be unfair to evict them. But in cases where the 



238 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

management is bad or drunkenness encouraged, 
or of leases falling in, let the landlord find a trust- 
worthy person or family (a man and wife are best) 
who shall be content to dispense pure beer for a 
fixed salary, keep accounts which shall be submitted 
to periodical inspection, and return the profits to the 
proprietor, who can dispose of them for the benefit 
of the parish. Or if he prefers to farm the public- 
house for his own benefit, let him do so. He will 
receive the rent and the profits and will probably 
discover in these days of agricultural depression that 
the balance in his favour is very acceptable. Either 
way the people will soon learn to prefer such a system 
and be grateful for it.' 

Some private owners took the advice here and 
there; then the People's Refreshment House Asso- 
ciation was formed for carrying on public-houses in 
the same way, and now the trust movement prom- 
ises a vigorous extension. I consider it all to the 
good and wish it every success. It will work no 
wonders, and will certainly not do all that its more 
sanguine promoters expect; but it will set a good 
example and will tend to raise the standard of char- 
acter and conduct in the liquor trade. Forebodings 
of ill effects, prompted by prejudice and unsupported 
by experience, may be disregarded with equanimity. 
What some of its opponents really fear is that it 
may be too successful and may pave the way for 
the optional introduction of the Scandinavian sys- 
tem in full. That result is neither unlikely nor un- 
desirable. 



239 



CHAPTER XI 

GOTHENBURG AND THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 

The Scandinavian system of disinterested manage- 
ment is very attractive. It gets rid of so many trou- 
blesome questions at once — licensing, number of 
houses, hours of sale, suitability of premises, encour- 
agement of malpractices, &c, &c. And then there 
is something especially fascinating in the appropria- 
tion of surplus profits to public purposes; it is such 
an ingenious mixture of business and philanthropy. 
The Norwegian plan of applying them to good works 
or charitable objects is no doubt preferable to the 
Swedish system of handing them over to the mu- 
nicipal authority to relieve the rates, and is on the 
whole the most satisfactory way of running the liquor 
traffic that has yet been invented. It is not surpris- 
ing that the system should find ardent advocates 
who think it would effect a revolution in Great 
Britain, and equally ardent opponents who believe 
that it would make the liquor traffic too popular and 
so stand in the way of eventual suppression. The 
former prove that it has turned the most drunken 
into the most sober of countries, the latter that it 



240 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

has been worse than a failure. For my part I can 
accept neither of these views. 

There are two ways of studying the question. One 
is to deal historically and statistically with the whole 
country, the other to take a typical town and care- 
fully examine the actual conditions. Numerous 
writers have taken the first way and some have 
done the thing very thoroughly. Their labours 
leave me free to adopt the second, which is more in 
keeping with the plan of this book and with the prin- 
ciple of study by observation urged at the beginning. 
It is also, perhaps, less tedious and may help the 
reader to realise the Scandinavian practice and to 
compare it with our own more clearly than a gen- 
eral survey. At any rate it may serve as a comple- 
mentary study. 

The town I choose as the most instructive example 
is Gothenburg. I do so partly because it strongly 
resembles many English and Scotch towns and is 
therefore a good basis of comparison, but chiefly be- 
cause it has had the longest and most equable experi- 
ence of the system. The fact that the profits go to 
the municipality and not to philanthropic objects — 
the plan I have admitted to be the better of the two 
— is no objection to the choice of Gothenburg, because 
the system has been admirably administered there 
and has not been tainted by those influences which 
have brought reproach upon the Swedish plan in 
some other towns. 

Gothenburg is a seaport and manufacturing town, 
containing at the present time about 130,000 in- 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 241 

habitants. On Wednesdays and Saturdays the popu- 
lation is swollen by a large influx of country people, 
who come to market, and it is important to remem- 
ber that these buy all their strong liquor in the 
town, as none whatever is sold in the surrounding 
country districts. In several respects Gothenburg 
strongly resembles Cardiff, not in appearance, but 
socially and economically. As the largest port in 
Scandinavia and the chief business centre of Sweden, 
it is a prosperous, intelligent, and go-ahead commu- 
nity, consisting of a large industrial class in receipt 
of good wages, and a numerous middle class rising 
from well-to-do to wealthy. The signs of prosperity 
and intelligence abound. The principal streets are 
broad and well kept, the smaller ones narrow and 
in dull weather dark and dingy, but nowhere 
seriously squalid. Electric light, telephones, and 
other modern appliances exist in profusion and in 
the most modern forms. Popular education is 
brought probably to a higher pitch than in any 
other country, and the healthy, well-kept appearance 
of the board school children indicates a high standard 
of home comfort. I have seen no beggars and only 
on£ tramp. Workmen's wages vary from 16s. to 
27s. a week, but money goes a good deal further in 
Sweden than with us. The chief industries are 
those connected with the shipping. There are no 
docks, but vessels up to 2,000 tons burden ascend 
the river Gotha, on which the town is situated, 
and lie at the open quays that extend along the 
river front for a mile or more, so that men 



242 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



engaged at work on the waterside have only to step 
across the quay to reach the public-house. These 
observations will, perhaps, sufficiently indicate the 
local conditions, which must be taken into consid- 
eration in forming an intelligent opinion upon the 
liquor question. 

The alcoholic needs of this town, with its 150,000 
inhabitants (including the rural contingent), are 
supplied by about 850 establishments which sell 
liquor of one sort or another — that is, beer, wine, 
or spirits. The exact number is not known; it may 
be rather less or possibly a few more, but at any 
rate it is over 800. Any one acquainted with licensing 
in England, and perhaps some others, will be 
amazed at this fact; so let me hasten to say that it 
rests on the unimpeachable authority of the Chief 
Constable of Gothenburg, who gave me the figures. 
I will explain them in a moment, but will first 
observe that the remarkable profusion of liquor 
shops which they indicate is not part of ' the 
Gothenburg system. f On the contrary, I have chosen 
this way of putting it in order to bring home to 
English readers in the most forcible manner the 
existing limitations of the system. Out of a total 
of between 800 and 900 establishments, selling liquor 
for consumption on or off the premises, only 69 are 
under the operation of the system; the remaining 
780 or so fall altogether outside it. They sell only 
beer and wine, about 200 of them being public-houses 
licensed for consumption on the premises, and the 
rest merely shops where bottled beer is sold without 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 243 

any license. In Gothenburg any shop may sell bot- 
tled beer, and nearly 600 actually do so. The 69 
establishments that come under the system sell spirits 
— that is, liquor containing over 25 per cent, of 
alcohol — as well as beer ; but for the sake of accuracy 
five more places, having special privileges, should be 
added, making a total of 74 spirit-houses, against 780 
purely beer-houses. This simple numerical state- 
ment places the relation between the two great 
branches of the liquor traffic in the clearest light, and 
shows the profound difference that exists between the 
conditions in Sweden and in England. In face of the 
facts, it is obviously in the highest degree disingenu- 
ous to speak of the l complete success ' or ' total 
failure ' of the Scandinavian system as a method of 
dealing with the drink question. There cannot be 
anything complete or total about it either way, for 
it has hitherto only attempted to deal with part 
of the question, the most important part from 
their point of view, but the least important from 
ours. 

To these points, however, we shall return later 
on, after dealing with the actual conduct of the public- 
houses, and the manner in which drinking is carried 
on. Let us first take that part of it which is con- 
trolled by the system and see how it works in prac- 
tice. The object is to regulate the spirit traffic, 
more particularly as it affects the working classes, so 
as to prevent its worst abuses without undue inter- 
ference with individual liberty. For this purpose 
the spirit licenses granted by the local authority 



244 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

are not handed over to private individuals, but to 
a limited liability company, managed by a board of 
five directors, who are all men of standing in the 
town, and receive a merely nominal remuneration 
for their services. The essence of the plan is the 
elimination of personal gain in the conduct of the 
trade, and accordingly all the profits are applied to 
public purposes after the company has received 6 
per cent, interest on the paid-up capital, which is a 
very small sum. Seven-tenths of the remaining 
profits are paid into the town chest, and the rest 
divided between the Crown and the district agri- 
cultural society. This is ' the Gothenburg system ' 
in brief. It means the disinterested control of the 
spirit traffic, not by the municipality or the State, 
but by a company, to whom the monopoly is granted 
on condition that they exercise it for the public wel- 
fare. The Swedish word for company is bolag (pro- 
nounced pretty nearly l boulog '), and as this has a 
distinctive sound to English ears, it is a good one 
to use. In Gothenburg no one speaks of the ' sys- 
tem ' but of the l Bolag.' The administration of the 
Bolag, then, is as follows : it uses, as we have already 
seen, 69 spirit licenses, of which 23 are sublet to 
spirit merchants for retail trade. But it is a mis- 
take to say that the Bolag loses control of this part 
of the traffic, for it imposes on the licensee such 
conditions as seem calculated to further the general 
object, and can withdraw the license if they are 
not fulfilled. The merchants, for instance, are only 
allowed to sell ' superior spirits/ and at a certain 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 245 

fixed minimum price — namely, Is. lOd. the litre — in 
order to keep this traffic out of the reach of the 
poorer classes; but I shall refer to this point again 
in the proper place. Further, 17 licenses are granted 
to hotels and restaurants not frequented by working 
men, and therefore not considered to come strictly 
within the scope of the system. This disposes of 
40 out of 69. There remain 29 directly administered 
by the Bolag itself, and these constitute the heart of 
the Gothenburg system in operation. They are 
thus divided : 18 public-houses with bars, 7 shops sell- 
ing only for consumption off the premises, and 4 
eating-houses at which liquor is served only with 
meals. I have been into most of them at different 
times in the day, and will endeavour to take the reader 
into one or two, so that he may compare them with 
our native gin-palaces, as some people are pleased 
to call them. 

The Bolag public-house has an unpretentious exte- 
rior both by day and night. You would pass it by 
as a private house if you did not happen to notice 
the particularly rough-looking men who are tum- 
bling in and out more or less at all hours from 9 
a.m. to 7 or 8 p.m. Only a black signboard above 
the door, with the company's name written in small 
gold letters, reveals its character. It is situated in 
a frequented thoroughfare or open place in accord- 
ance with a provision of the Swedish law, designed 
to subject all such establishments to the wholesome 
influence of publicity and to prevent hole-and-corner 
iniquities. On opening a door you step into a per- 



246 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

fectly plain but roomy saloon, light, airy, and well 
kept. The sawdusted floor is clean, for the habit 
of promiscuous spitting, which has developed into a 
public curse in London, is not practised in Sweden. 
Round three sides of the room little square tables, 
at which two, or at most three, men can sit, are 
ranged against the wall. In the middle of the 
day, or after 6 p.m., all these will be occupied, at 
other times only a few of them. A door at one 
end opens into a smaller apartment labelled ' eating- 
room ' and similarly furnished. The bar is a low 
counter some 15 feet or 18 feet long, standing 
out towards the centre of the large room and open 
at both ends. On the wall behind it there is a row 
of shelves, on which bottles of the so-called ' supe- 
rior ' spirits are arrayed, proclaiming themselves 
to be ' cognac,' &c, with the usual effrontery. A 
large spirit cask and three or four small ones, 
marked G.U., stand at the side. The bar counter 
is covered with zinc, and two metal trays, each with 
a small square decanter and a few dozen spirit 
glasses, stand upon it, together with a little bowl 
or saucer containing fragments of the black aniseed 
biscuit universally eaten as an appetiser in Sweden. 
Otherwise there is nothing on the bar. A bill of 
fare for the day hangs on the wall and conceals 
a printed placard setting forth the exact pecuniary 
advantages which accrue from the renunciation of 
a glass of spirits. 

Let us say it is between 5 and 6 o'clock in the 
evening, the hour before the bar-sale closes, and a 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 247 

Friday. A throng of men, not one whit less rough- 
looking than our own lowest class of labourers, comes 
and goes with astonishing rapidity. It is difficult to 
reconcile the appearance of these men with that of 
the children up at the school. They press up to 
the bar, order and swallow at a single gulp a glass 
of neat spirits, pay for it and go. At one minute 
there are two dozen thronging at the little counter, 
the next they are gone, only to be replaced in a few 
moments by another lot. Some order two glasses and 
drink them immediately one after the other in two 
successive gulps. It is all drunk neat, no one takes 
any water^ there is none to be seen on the premises. 
The barkeeper and an assistant are kept so busy 
filling glasses and refilling decanters at each end of 
the bar that they have no time to look at the customers 
and notice their condition. If you try to count the 
glasses sold it is impossible, but, so far as you can 
calculate, they are disappearing at the rate of thirty 
a minute. The glasses are peculiar, shaped like a 
medicine glass, and holding exactly five centilitres, 
or If oz. Thus some of these men swallow in about 
15 seconds 3^r oz., or nearly half-a-tumbler, of neat 
spirits containing 44 per cent, of alcohol. The 
spirit is branvin, commonly, but most erroneously, 
called brandy, to which it has no resemblance. It is 
a ' plain ' spirit, quite colourless, made in patent stills, 
chiefly from potatoes, and highly rectified. Chemi- 
cally, it is a pure spirit, which means that it consists 
almost entirely of ethylic alcohol, but the man who 
will pronounce it wholesome is either very bold or 



248 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



possessed of private physiological knowledge. If it 
is wholesome, then the much-abused ' cheap and 
fiery ' spirit of the British publican is also whole- 
some, for the cheap ' whisky ' of the ordinary public- 
house is just branvin with a little colouring matter. 
The chief difference is the price ; the Bolag glass costs 
a fraction over Id!., and contains fully twice as 
much as they give you in England for 3d., or some- 
times 4d. 

Such is the liquor and such the manner of drink- 
ing in Gothenburg under the Bolag. But lest any 
one should suppose that this is meant as a reproach, 
let me add that the scene just described, giving as 
it does a glimpse of the immeasurable capacity of 
the Swede for swallowing spirits, is the most con- 
vincing proof that I have met with of the absolute 
necessity of the system. What would go on with- 
out the control of the Bolag is l a thing imagination 
boggles at.' Nor do I wish to imply that drinking 
proceeds on the same heroic scale all day long, or 
even at the busiest hours every day in the week. 
But it does go on. I have described what I have 
seen, and the occasion was not selected. When the 
bars are opened in the morning the men rush in and 
drink neat spirit or porter and spirit together. Be- 
sides the bar trade, which is conducted without loiter- 
ing, a certain number of men are seen sitting at the 
little tables, some with a plate of food before them, 
others with (empty) spirit glasses. I have seen three 
men with seven glasses on the table before them. 
At meal times food is served in considerable quan- 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 249 

tities. It is both cheap and good and appears to be 
appreciated. A day's bill of fare is as follows: 
Eoast meat and potatoes, 3|cZ.; meat balls and 
potatoes, 2f<l; salt fish and potatoes, 2d.; porridge, 
l^d. Beer is also served in these houses, but not 
in large quantities. They open at 9 a.m. and close at 
6 p.m. in winter and 7 p.m. in summer, so far as the 
bar trade is concerned, remaining open until 8 p.m. 
for the sale of liquor only with food. No women or 
children are ever seen in them. The managers, who 
are tidy and respectable-looking men, though not 
more so than a vast number of English publicans, 
are engaged under strict conditions defined by con- 
tract, and may be dismissed at two months' notice. 
They receive a salary varying from 601. to 3001. a 
year, according to the size of the house and the num- 
ber of assistants kept. In addition, they make what 
they can out of the sale of food and non-alcoholic 
drinks. They have no interest in the sale of spirits, 
beer, or wine, and are forbidden to sell these to 
customers already intoxicated or under eighteen 
years of age. In addition they must sell for cash 
only, and may not serve the same person with several 
glasses in succession. 

So much for the eighteen l dram-shops ' run by 
the Bolag. Their other establishments may be 
briefly dismissed. The eating-houses, which are 
four in number, do not differ from the foregoing in 
appearance, except that there is no bar trade. 
Spirits are only served with meals, and on this head 
it is to be observed that a glass or two of branvin 



250 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

before meals is the universal custom throughout 
Sweden from the highest to the lowest class. These 
houses are well kept, the kitchens clean and spacious, 
the food good. A real trade in eatables is done, but 
it is carried on at a loss which falls on the Bolag, 
and is made good out of the profits derived from 
their other business. Finally, we have the seven 
retail shops where cheap spirit is sold for consump- 
tion off the premises. They are kept in the same 
style as the others, but are naturally smaller and 
less comfortable. They contain nothing but a 
counter and the usual casks. Business is conducted 
very promptly and without loitering. The customers 
include both the labouring and the better classes, 
and they buy chiefly branvin. It is sold in quantities 
of not less than one litre, or If pint, which is 
equivalent to about a bottle and a half of our 
standard, and costs 15d. The spirit is drawn from 
the cask in a measure and poured into a large 
bottle which holds just a litre, and the customer 
walks off with it. I have seen numbers of men and 
women of the labouring class buy these bottles on a 
Saturday. When you come to think of it, fifteen- 
pence is easily forthcoming on pay-day, and a 
bottle and a half of whisky contains the promise of 
a very fair carouse. A jolly Sunday is cheap in 
Gothenburg. 

A few words will suffice for the rest of the liquor 
traffic lying outside the influence of the system. 
The beer-houses licensed for consumption on the 
premises are very thick on the ground in some 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 251 

streets and easily recognised from the outside, though 
hardly conspicuous. A good many are situated 
in basements. Inside they are arranged very much 
like the Bolag houses, but are for the most part 
smaller and less tidy. Drinking is carried on at 
the bar, but more at the little tables, in a leisurely 
fashion. The price of beer comes to much the same 
as in England, but grade for grade it is weaker. 
The cheapest quality, costing %d. a small glass, is 
a very watery liquid; the strongest is Carnegie's 
porter, which contains about 8 per cent, of alcohol, 
and costs 3%d. a bottle. Most of the bottled beers, 
of which there are several kinds, contain about 6 
per cent, or 7 per cent, of alcohol. The ' wines ' 
sold here are manufactured articles, compounded 
of spirit and sugar, with a little colouring and fla- 
vouring matter. They are very cheap, and contain 
from 15 per cent, to 18 per cent, of alcohol. All 
these houses are under the surveillance and control 
of the police just as with us, and none of them are 
1 tied.' They close at 8 p.m. In conclusion, the only 
thing that need be said about the retail trade in 
bottled beer is that it pervades the entire town, and 
is subject to no control whatever. 

Such is the system in actual working. What are 
its effects? Before proceeding to describe them I 
would remind the reader that the Bolag unquestion- 
ably discharges its trust with great faithfulness and 
ability. It would be impossible to find in any mu- 
nicipal or other public body a more competent and 
disinterested set of men than the board of directors. 



252 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

"Whatever can be done to regulate the spirit 
traffic by this means has been done in Gothenburg. 
And I would also remind him that the Bolag entered 
into a terribly neglected heritage. All accounts agree 
that the spirit-shops were abominably conducted and 
the home of every kind of abuse. From the exceed- 
ingly lax manner in which the beer-houses are car- 
ried on still, it is easy to see that in pre-Bolag days 
a state of things existed which once prevailed here, 
but so long ago that it has been forgotten. 

Let us first enumerate the principal directions in 
which its activity has been exercised, once more re- 
minding the reader that the consumption of spirits 
alone is concerned. It has (1) reduced the number 
of public-houses; (2) improved their condition and 
conduct; (3) shortened the hours of sale; (4) stopped 
public-house drinking by persons under eighteen 
years of age; (5) raised the price and lowered the 
strength of cheap spirits; (6) insured a standard 
quality and measure; (7) stopped drinking on credit; 
(8) provided good food in the public-houses; (9) 
eliminated the element of personal gain behind the 
bar, and abolished competition. I do not think any 
of these statements are open to contradiction or even 
to serious criticism, though of course there is a good' 
deal to be said about the precise value of the va- 
rious measures enumerated. Some of them sound 
more important than they are in reality, but to 
examine them closely would be beside my immediate 
purpose, which is to state rather than to weigh the 
changes effected by the Bolag in the direction of 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 



253 



reform. I have not included among them the refusal 
of liquor to persons already intoxicated, for, though 
this is strictly enjoined on public-house managers, 
and doubtless with considerable effect, it is, never- 
theless, not strictly carried out, as Dr. Wieselgren 
admits and as I have myself noticed. One cannot 
say, therefore, that the practice of serving intoxi- 
cated persons has been stopped by the Bolag, though 
it has been diminished. To proceed, however, to 
the main question, what effect have the foregoing 
reforms had on the consumption of liquor, the preva- 
lence of drunkenness, and the well-being of the work- 
ing classes? For the sake of clearness we will take 
these questions in order. 

With regard to the consumption of liquor, it is 
necessary to have recourse to the following well-worn 
table of statistics. They begin with 1875, because 
that is the first year in which the Bolag obtained 
control of all the spirit licenses: 



Year Consumption per head 
Litres 

1875 27.4 

1876 28.4 

1877 26.9 

1878 24.8 

1879 21.9 

1880 20.2 

1881 19.1 

1882 17.7 

1883 . 18.1 

1884 18.2 

1885 18.0 

1886 17.8 

1887 16.9 



Year Consumption per head 
Litres 

1888 16.7 

1889 16.1 

1890 15.9 

1891 14.8 

1892 13.5 

1893 13.2 

1894 13.0 

1895 13.1 

1896 13.2 

1897 , 13.6 

1898 14.5 

1899 16.0 



254 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

In considering this table it should be borne in 
mind that the consumption per head is reckoned 
on the population of Gothenburg, but inasmuch as 
the whole rural population for many miles around 
buys its spirits in the town, the consumption should 
really be distributed over a much larger number of 
persons — about half as many again, so far as the 
best judges could estimate it. Consequently the 
true consumption per head should be about two- 
thirds of that indicated. The correction, however, 
does not affect the comparison of one year with 
another. It will be seen that a large and steadily 
progressive diminution took place for twenty years. 
Since 1894 there has been some recovery, but the 
amount is still far below the earlier figures. The 
steady character of the fall shows that it was not 
due to fluctuations in the state of trade or to scarcity 
of wages, which affect consumption in Sweden not 
less than they do here. On the contrary, it went on in 
spite of such fluctuations, and it cannot be attributed 
to any cause but the operations of the Bolag. The 
facts are clear and instructive. They afford statistical 
evidence both of the efficacy of the system and of 
its limitations. 

When we turn to the question of drunkenness we 
find the limitations very much more strongly marked 
than the efficacy. Gothenburg is a very drunken 
place. Personal observation, the opinion of residents, 
police and medical evidence, all point to the same 
conclusion. I have seen more drunkenness in a Scotch 
town on Saturday night, but never in an English 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 



255 



one. In the course of an hour's stroll through the 
streets, large and small, between 7 and 8 p.m. I have 
counted twelve drunken men, and never went out 
in the evening without seeing some, though the 
streets are not thronged with people at that time 
as in England, but curiously empty. I have seen 
working men half drunk in the streets at midday 
and met them staggering home at 11 p.m., hours after 
every bar was closed. I took the greatest pains to 
correct my observations on this head, and in order 
to do so I stayed so long in Gothenburg that my 
friends there could not understand what I was doing, 
as no one who had come to study the system had 
stopped there half the time. I was checking my 
impressions, and the longer I stayed the worse they 
grew. I began by thinking it a drunken place; I 

Number of persons fined for drunkenness per 1,000 



Year 
1865 
1866 

1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 
1880 
1881 



Persons per 1,000 
46 



30 
29 
26 
28 
26 
28 
28 
32 
38 
42 
39 
40 
32 
31 
31 
32 



Year 
1882 
1883 
1884 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 
1891 
1892 
1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 



Persons per 1,000 
29 



30 
29 
29 
31 
32 
31 
34 
40 
44 
42 
37 
33 
31 
35 
44 
57 



256 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



ended by thinking it one of the most drunken places 
I ever saw. That impression is fully corroborated by 
the police statistics given on the previous page. 

For the sake of comparison I will add a few corre- 
sponding figures for 1898: — England, 7; Newcastle 
(the most drunken town in England), 17; Scotland, 
26; Ireland, 19; Glasgow, 57. That is to say, the 
police drunkenness of Gothenburg is about eight times 
the average for England, thrice that of the most 
drunken town in England, double the average of 
Scotland, and equal to that of Glasgow. Of course 
it is argued that these comparisons are fallacious. 
I have already said something about that in a pre- 
vious chapter, and I have something more to say about 
it later on. My own opinion is that they reflect the 
relative state of things with remarkable accuracy. 

But, however defective police statistics may be 
for comparison between different towns and countries, 
this table holds good for comparing one year with 
another in Gothenburg itself. The law has been 
the same as to arrests ever since the system was 
started, and it has been administered in the same 
spirit by the same men. There has been no ' turn 
of the screw ? either way, and consequently the 
returns give us a trustworthy bird's-eye view of 
the amount of drunkenness from year to year. At 
first there was a marked and rapid fall, and the 
improvement continued fairly steady until the pros- 
perous period of the seventies, when the numbers 
rose again nearly to their old level relatively to the 
population. Then they gradually fell again, reaching 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 257 

a second low-water mark in 1882, after which they 
once more rose, slowly at first, but then rapidly, 
until in 1891 they stood as high as in 1865. All 
the good effected by the system in respect to 
drunkenness had vanished. Then followed another 
fall, to be succeeded by a much greater rise. The 
last state is far worse than the first. I might give 
some further statistics from the General Hospital, 
which also go to prove that drunkenness has been 
increasing, but it is unnecessary. Nobody in Sweden 
denies the fact for a moment. Dr. Wieselgren has 
repeatedly admitted it in the most straightforward 
manner, and indeed it is so fully recognised as to 
have become the lever of a new movement. The 
revival of drunkenness is generally, and no doubt 
correctly, attributed to the increasing use of beer. 
The Swedes, like the Scotch and the Russians, are 
naturally spirit-drinkers, but under the restrictions 
imposed on the spirit traffic they have gradually de- 
veloped a taste for beer. According to the official 
returns, the annual consumption per head for the 
whole country increased pretty steadily from 11.1 
litres in 1861-65 to 45 litres in 1897 ; but the figures 
are not reliable, and the exact increase cannot be 
stated. It is, however, certainly very great. In 
Gothenburg it is believed that after the spirit bars 
are closed drinkers betake themselves to the beer- 
houses, where they are served for an hour or two 
later, and I can corroborate the statement. I have 
seen men come already drunk into a beer-house 
after 6 o'clock — the closing time for spirits — and get 



258 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

beer. But there is also a great deal of home drinking, 
which is proved by the increasing prevalence of 
drunkenness among women and children. This is 
the most deplorable feature of the present situation, 
and it conveys a serious warning to enthusiastic but 
short-sighted reformers who see only the evil before 
their faces and, in trying to evade it, run into others, 
and perhaps worse ones. Formerly drunkenness was 
practically unknown among women, and only two 
or three cases would appear in the police-courts in 
a year; but for some time a marked increase has 
taken place, and in 1893 144 were fined for this 
offence, some of them several times, making a total 
of 201 convictions. The observations at the hospital 
corroborate this fact, and Dr. Koster, the chief physi- 
cian, informed me that porter is the form of alcohol 
principally affected by the women. I also understand 
that the school teachers complain seriously of a grow- 
ing tendency to drink among young lads. It is clear 
that the restrictions imposed on spirits and public- 
houses have driven the people to beer and home drink- 
ing, and that in this way the women and children 
have caught the infection. 

The reader can now understand how it is that 
the Gothenburg system is called sometimes a great 
success and sometimes a great failure, according 
to the taste and fancy of the speaker. But there 
remains the third question — to which an answer 
should be given — what effect has it had on the gen- 
eral welfare of the working classes? For that is, 
after all, the real and fundamental object with which 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 259 

the system was started. Without any doubt it has 
had a very beneficial effect, and for a perfectly defi- 
nite reason. The substitution of beer for spirits as 
an intoxicating agent has been physically very bene- 
ficial. To the elect one kind of intoxication is prob- 
ably as baleful as another, but to ordinary mortals 
it is not, and though there may be as much drunk- 
enness in Gothenburg to-day as there was in 1865, 
it is much less injurious to health. The Chief Con- 
stable explained to me that the drunkards who now 
pass through the hands of the police are not the 
miserable, sodden, diseased, and broken-down wretches 
that they used to be. Physically, he said, there is 
a great difference, which he attributed to the fact 
that they are better fed, and so better able to resist 
the effects of liquor. The explanation is, no doubt, 
correct; for the beer-drinker is not affected by the 
same intense loathing for food which accompanies 
spirit alcoholism, and therefore suffers less in health. 
The truth is that the drunkenness of Gothenburg 
in old days was perfectly appalling and only equalled 
by our own in the eighteenth century. The law of 
1855 did a great deal of good, but it is clear from 
the 1864 report on the causes of industrial poverty 
and degradation that things still remained very bad, 
and it is equally clear that under the system which 
was adopted in consequence of that report they have 
vastly improved for the reason given. The conclu- 
sion to be drawn from the revival of drunkenness 
in Gothenburg is that if a man wants to drink he 
will drink, and if you make it difficult for him in 



260 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

one way he will find another. That is the opinion 
of the Chief Constable, who knows as much about 
the question as any man living, and expressed 
himself, if I remember right, in those very words. 
He is a staunch friend of the system, but has too 
much experience of human nature to give way to 
any rosewater delusions. Placing the beer traffic 
under the same control as the spirits would, no doubt, 
have an effect, but it might not be in the direction 
of sobriety. Already the thirsty Swede has found 
other means of evading the control of the Bolag 
besides the beer-house. There is ' clubbing,' for in- 
stance. A gentleman, whose office overlooks an arch- 
way not far from one of the Bolag 's retail spirit- 
shops, told me that he often sees two or three 
working men, who have clubbed together for a 
bottle of branvin, repair to this convenient spot and 
do their best to consume the lot then and there. An- 
other still more ominous method of evasion is the 
resort to cheap commercial intoxicants. Dr. Koster, 
a very able observer and also a friend of the system, 
informed me that he has noticed a tendency to take 
methylated spirits on the part of those who find 
it difficult to obtain branvin under the present re- 
strictions. These observations and the like merely 
confirm an oft-told tale which warns us not to ex- 
pect too much from measures of reform. There is 
no short cut to sobriety, whether by way of Gothen- 
burg or any other place, and, to do them justice, the 
Swedes generally recognise this. They only pretend 
to be working in the right direction, and the clearest- 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 



261 



headed men among them indulge in no extravagant 
hopes of the advantages likely to accrue from an ex- 
tension of their system. 

Now, if it is difficult to forecast the results of 
placing the whole of the liquor traffic under com- 
pany control in Gothenburg, where there is some 
solid experience to go upon, how much more doubt- 
ful does the question become when we pass to 
England, where the conditions differ to an extent 
which can only be realised by actual and careful ob- 
servation! Speaking generally, we stand already 
upon a higher plane as regards sobriety. I have 
given some evidence in support of that opinion, and 
will carry it a little further. I have previously com- 
pared Gothenburg with Cardiff in general terms as 
places of similar size and character, and, as the 
latter is in many respects a typical British industrial 
town, a more detailed comparison may not be unin- 
structive. Cardiff has its slums, its Irish population, 
its seafaring men of all nations, and its contingent 
(often a very rough one) of visitors from the sur- 
rounding districts. No one can call it a show place 
or a model of morality. The following table shows 
the population (estimated), number of establishments 
selling liquor, police force, number of convictions 
for drunkenness, and number of cases of illness di- 
rectly due to drink admitted to hospital in the year 
1893 for Gothenburg and Cardiff respectively : 



- 


Population 


Liquor- 
shops 


Police 
force 


Convictions 


Hospital 
cases 


Gothenburg 
Cardiff 


107,000 
150,000 


850 
339 


211 
201 


4.066 

482 


104 
15 



262 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

I do not wish to lay more weight on these figures 
than they will bear, and no one knows their weak 
points better than myself, but I submit that, when all 
allowance has been made, they do go to show a marked 
superiority in favour of the English town with respect 
to excessive drinking. If the discrepancy between 
the number of convictions were less, it might be 
explained away by a possible difference of police 
procedure, but it is too large for that, and in my 
opinon there is really very little difference in the 
police procedure, though the Gothenburg force has 
the advantage in numbers. I know Cardiff well, and 
have kept my eyes very wide open with respect to 
this point in Gothenburg, and the conclusion forced 
upon me is that the Swedish police act on very 
much the same principle as a well-conducted force 
in our own country, and that the returns fairly repre- 
sent the relative amount of public drunkenness in 
the two places. The Gothenburg constables appear 
to be an admirable body of men, of stalwart frame and 
calm demeanour, and they are fairly in evidence in 
the streets, but they certainly do not interfere with 
every tipsy man. The law under which they act 
runs to this effect : ' Any person who takes strong 
drink in such quantities that from his behaviour and 
demeanour he appears to be visibly intoxicated and 
is found in such state in a road, or street, or other 
public place, will be punished for drunkenness by a 
fine.' In practice it corresponds exactly with * drunk 
and incapable ' — that is to say, it applies to any one 
who staggers so as to be a definite nuisance to others, 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 263 

or who cannot get along at all. Disorder is a 
different count, but Swedish drunkards are much 
less disorderly than English ones, and consequently 
a good many more escape the legal consequences of 
excess by stumbling quietly home. On the other 
hand, the vicarious stability of a friend's arm is not 
allowed to exonerate the incapable inebriate; the 
constable does not turn an indulgent eye on this 
touching spectacle, like his English colleague, but 
marks his man down and summons him next day, 
so that these two points may be set against each 
other. On the whole, I have convinced myself that 
if the two forces were to exchange beats there would 
be no great alteration in the charge-sheet. More- 
over the police returns are corroborated in a remark- 
able way by the medical evidence. Out of 1,273 
admissions to the Gothenburg Hospital there were 
104 cases of chronic or acute alcoholism of different 
kinds; out of 1,303 admissions to the Cardiff Infir- 
mary there were only 15. The discrepancy should 
really be greater, for while the Swedish cases were 
all of well-marked primary alcoholic disease, I have, 
in order to be on the right side, included in the 
Cardiff list some more doubtful cases, such as 
peripheral neuritis and granular kidney. Surely this 
medical evidence would suffice by itself to establish 
my contention; in combination with the rest it ap- 
pears to me as conclusive as any such evidence can 
possibly be. 

But probably no Englishman who has had good 
opportunities of seeing Swedes drink will need any 



264 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

further proof that they are more given to the vice 
than ourselves. It is largely a matter of climate 
and perhaps also of race, but certainly of climate, as 
I have pointed out in an earlier chapter. All classes, 
including ladies, consume alcohol in a concentrated 
form with an ease which only habitual topers can 
command under a warmer or drier sky. The 
moderately drinking Englishman, who begins by 
repudiating the proffered dram, soon finds that he 
can stand it, and then grows to like it. Whether 
for this or for other reasons, public opinion sanctions 
a greater laxity than with us, and that is reflected in 
the conduct of the public-houses. I have repeatedly 
seen men served in a beer-shop who would be turned 
out of almost any public-house in London, and the 
difference was forcibly borne in upon me on one 
particular occasion. I visited a music-hall frequented, 
not by the lowest class of working men, but by the 
class just above them and by the inferior bourgeois. 
As luck would have it I sat down next a drunken 
man. He was in the affectionate mood, which is 
only one degree less trying than the quarrelsome, 
and he gave me the full benefit of his friendly 
emotions. The fellow told me that he had a pocket- 
ful of money, which accounted for his high good 
humour, and insisted on ordering relays of bottled 
beer. At the same time he kept up a tremendous 
noise, shouting at the top of his voice and repeatedly 
drawing the attention of the whole place. In an 
English house he would have been sternly warned 
and then summarily ejected, but here the attendant 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM' 265 

merely beamed on him with a mild and ineffectual 
remonstrance, and brought him more beer. One 
reason why inebriated Swedes receive more lenient 
treatment in public places may be that, as a rule, 
they are far less given to violent disorder than 
English blackguards in a like case. At any rate, 
custom in Sweden certainly does regard the failing 
with a more lenient eye. 

Now, these considerations explain both the neces- 
sity and the efficacy of the Gothenburg system in the 
land of its birth, but they add to the difficulty of 
estimating its chances of success in England. In- 
deed, no confident opinion can be formed on the sub- 
ject a posteriori; the evidence from fact is inade- 
quate. That such opinions have been repeatedly 
formed in diametrically opposite senses sufficiently 
proves their untrustworthiness. Of a priori opinions 
we have, of course, an abundance, but they are not 
worth discussing. Perhaps, however, some additional 
light may be gained from the Gothenburg experience 
by considering for a moment the detailed measures 
of reform instituted under the company system. 
Some may be briefly dismissed as being either non- 
contentious or unimportant. Among the former is 
the provision prohibiting the sale of spirits to young 
persons. The Swedish law fixes the minimum age at 
15, but the Bolag has raised it to 18, and there can 
be no two honest opinions about the advantages of 
this measure. The prohibition of sales on credit is 
another good move, but of more importance in Sweden 
than in urban England, where public-house credit 



266 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

is not a very common commodity. Supplying a stand- 
ard measure and quality of liquor, on the other hand, 
has a doubtful value from the temperance point of 
view, however admirable in a commercial sense. It 
would mean with us, on the whole, that a given sum 
of money would go rather further towards the pur- 
chase of intoxication than it does at present, for 
the great adulterant is water, and the dishonest glass 
errs on the side of smallness. Raising the price and 
lowering the strength sound very drastic measures, 
and no doubt they might be made so, but the Goth- 
enburg Bolag has only ventured on changes so small 
as to be inappreciable. Spirits would still be very 
cheap if the price were doubled, but perhaps there 
are practical objections to this course. The ex- 
periment, however, would be very interesting, and 
could not fail to have a great effect. Probably it 
would lead to illicit distilling. With us there is no 
such margin for alteration. Reduction in the number 
of public-houses is an old controversial point, on 
which the experience of Gothenburg throws no 
clear light, though public opinion there attaches 
considerable importance to the measure. Altering 
the aspect and arrangement of the public-houses is 
another point on which the advocates of the system 
both in Sweden and England lay great stress, but 
nothing that I have seen has convinced me that 
there is anything in it whatever. The Bolag public- 
house is less showy outside and more comfortable 
inside than the average English pothouse, but why 
this should be supposed to make for temperance I 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 267 

entirely fail to understand, and I am perfectly 
certain that as a matter of fact it does not. If the 
idea is to turn the pothouse into a sort of cafe, I can 
understand and heartily sympathise with the object; 
but the cafe is made by and conforms to the habits 
of the customers; to expect the reverse to happen 
is to ask the cart to pull the horse. The Bolag public- 
house might very well be a cafe, and if it were in 
France or Italy it would be, but being where it is 
it remains a pothouse, where the people just drink as 
hard as they are allowed to. Would not the same 
thing happen in England? Supplying meals is an- 
other measure intended to serve the same end, and 
not much more effective in practice. It rests appar- 
ently on the supposition that a customer does not 
know whether he wants food or drink, and that the 
opportunity of the one may induce him to forego the 
other. It is faithfully carried out in Gothenburg, 
but the bar still enjoys undiminished patronage. 

"We come now to what is generally considered the 
cardinal point of the system — namely, the elimina- 
tion of personal profit on liquor in the conduct of 
the public-house. In Gothenburg, I have no doubt, 
it has a real value; the Bolag manager is more par- 
ticular and careful than his extremely lax colleague 
the beer-house publican, and probably the difference 
between him and his predecessor at the spirit bar 
is still greater. With us too it would have an effect. 
It would abolish the badly conducted house and level 
up the whole traffic to the standard of the best. Un- 
doubtedly an improvement; but what it would rep- 



268 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

resent in actual results is a matter of opinion. Some 
think the difference would be enormous. I cannot 
agree with them. One thing is certain. No system 
will prevent people getting drunk on the premises. 
The Bolag, with ample powers and the best will in 
the world, certainly does not. I have seen a man 
tumble out of one of their shops and go staggering 
down the street; I have seen others served who had 
obviously had too much already, and, though not 
' drunk and incapable ' at the moment, would un- 
doubtedly be so within five minutes of their getting 
outside. And was not one of our model public-houses 
convicted of serving a drunken man a few days after 
it was opened? On the whole, I should say a decent 
English publican is stricter than a Bolag manager, 
because a drunken man is more likely to get him into 
trouble by stopping and making a noise. As for 
1 pushing the sale, ' I have already discussed that dear 
delusion, and will merely observe that the Bolag 
manager attends more promptly to his customers than 
any English publican I ever saw. Finally, there is 
the question of early closing, and this appears to 
me by far the most important and efficient difference 
between the English and the Gothenburg public-house. 
The strongest argument for the Scandinavian system 
is that it is the easiest and most complete way of 
controlling the hours. On this head it should be 
observed that the Swedish law places great power 
in the hands of the local authority apart from the 
system altogether. The legal hour for closing is ten, 
but it may be advanced or retarded by the town 



THE SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM 269 

authorities at pleasure. Thus in Gothenburg all 
public-houses close at eight, hotels and restaurants at 
twelve, while the Bolag shuts its bars at six or 
seven. Of course, this obviously means one law for 
the rich and another for the poor, and results in 
some curious anomalies. For instance, in one of 
the Bolag establishments the poor man on the 
ground floor cannot drink at the bar after six and is 
turned out at eight, while his social superior can 
have what he pleases up till eleven in a room above. 
The contrast was forcibly impressed upon me once 
by a young gentleman who with great gravity and a 
glazed eye explained to me the advantages of the 
Gothenburg system as well as a thickened utterance 
would permit. To my description of some drunken 
men I had seen that evening he replied sympathetically 
1 Baj job ! ' which is not Swedish but drunkenese for 
' Bad job ! ' I left him at 11.30 p.m. still opening fresh 
bottles in the restaurant of an hotel which is nominally 
under the control of the Bolag. The docile and sub- 
missive Swedish working man does not kick against 
the invidious distinction, but how would the free-born 
Briton take it? However, so great a discrepancy 
would not be necessary. Bars might very well be 
closed an hour earlier than restaurants and hotels 
without exciting class prejudices. Of course this could 
also be done by statutory legislation, but the pros- 
pect is not very promising. Under the company sys- 
tem it would be a matter of course. 

It only remains to add that the lessons derived 
from other considerable towns in Sweden and Norway 






270 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

are substantially the same. The profits of the traffic 
are somewhat differently distributed, a much larger 
share going to the State in Norway, but the net 
results may be summarised as general improvement 
in the traffic, diminished consumption of spirits, and 
a large amount of drunkenness with a tendency to 
increase. The average annual figures for drunken- 
ness (that is, number of convictions per 1,000) in 
recent years are — Stockholm, 33 ; Bergen, 26 ; Chris- 
tiania, 56. Christiania is quite as drunken as Goth- 
enburg or Glasgow, and even Bergen is far more 
drunken than the worst town in England. 



271 



CHAPTER XII 

HABITUAL INEBRIATES 

The Legislature has wisely proceeded by slow steps 
in trying to deal with this painful class. They 
present a most perplexing problem — so perplexing 
that one's mind involuntarily reverts to the Old 
Eccles system of hastening the end by providing 
opportunities for unlimited indulgence ; but, however 
diverting or sensible that treatment may be in a 
play, it cannot be advocated in seriousness. Neither 
the individual nor the State can shirk the duty of 
doing what they can for these wrecks of humanity. 
What can they do? 

It is now generally recognised that the first 
essential is to keep them entirely from drink, and 
all those who have had any experience of inebriates 
know that this cannot be done under the ordinary 
conditions of life even when the patient is most 
willing to co-operate. Hence the invention of homes, 
retreats, and reformatories, which are intended to 
make abstinence effective for a given period. Homes 
or retreats are for voluntary patients; reformatories 
for persons committed by magistrates on conviction 
in court. The former were established on a legal 



272 DKINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

footing under license by the Act of 1879 ; the latter 
by the Act of 1898. Or, more correctly, legal 
machinery for establishing them was provided by 
those Acts. We have, therefore, more than twenty 
years' experience of licensed retreats, but public 
reformatories have existed for a very short time, 
and only on a small scale, as local authorities have 
not been in a hurry to avail themselves of the power 
to set up such institutions given by the Act of 1898. 
According to the Government inspector's last report 
there were at the end of 1900 twenty licensed retreats 
with 357 beds, and five reformatories with 416 beds. 
Both have since increased and will no doubt continue 
to increase, for the desire to make use of them and 
the consequent demand for accommodation seem 
to be growing steadily. 

A good deal of disappointment at the small 
results of the Act of 1898 has been expressed by 
advocates of reformatory treatment, and local authori- 
ties have been blamed for not utilising their powers 
on a larger scale. It is said that the Act has 
made no perceptible difference. That is true; it 
has not; but the local authorities are not to blame. 
I read in the Government report that at the end 
of July 1901 there were 428 beds available for 
committed cases, of which 285 were occupied. The 
accommodation, though not very large, was then 
in excess of the demand. This does not mean that 
there were in England and "Wales only 285 persons 
proper subjects for reformatory treatment, because 
more than two-thirds of the local authorities — county 



HABITUAL INEBRIATES 273 

councils, county and non-county boroughs — were 
unprovided with accommodation; but it does mean 
that the number of persons committed in those places 
which have accommodation is much smaller than 
was anticipated by many people. The fact is urged 
as an argument for extending the existing powers 
of compulsory detention to classes of drunkards who 
at present escape ; and I am not prepared to condemn 
the proposal. But I am certain that whatever may 
be done in this direction the result will prove very 
disappointing unless the question is more clearly 
understood than it appears to be at present. It 
is necessary to define our aims and examine the 
prospect of realising them with some attempt at 
precision. 

There are three classes of persons to be dealt 
with — (1) voluntary patients; (2) persons compul- 
sorily committed on account of offences, to wit 
criminal or repeated public drunkenness; (3) in- 
ebriates who neither submit to voluntary restraint 
nor come within the grasp of the existing law. The 
two first classes are covered by the Acts already 
mentioned; roughly speaking, the one furnishes the 
inmates of the existing retreats, the other those of 
the reformatories. I say l roughly speaking ' because 
a good deal of domestic compulsion is sometimes 
applied to the first class, while individuals committed 
by a court may acquiesce willingly in the sentence. 
The object of both retreats and reformatories is the 
same, namely, the cure of inebriety; and the means 
are the same, namely, restraint along with such 



274 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

other influences as may be brought to bear. Other- 
wise the two are on a totally different footing. 
Retreats are either philanthropic or business concerns, 
or a mixture. That is to say, they are supported by 
charity or (more frequently) by the payment of the 
patients. They are, in either case, wholly voluntary. 
There can, therefore, be no objection to their 
multiplication and no hesitation in encouraging 
them. Even if the result is small it is all to the 
good. For my own part I believe that more could 
be done in the way of efficient reclamation by 
philanthropic homes for poor voluntary patients, 
especially young women, than by any other means. 
I would not have them purely charitable; the 
patients should earn their keep or pay something. 
But this is by the way. The point I wished to 
make was that when we come to public institutions 
the case is entirely different. The State and the 
local authorities are trustees for the public, and 
cannot afford to indulge in philanthropic investments 
unless there is a reasonable prospect of getting a 
fair return for the money. They are, therefore, 
quite justified in going slowly to work. They have 
no right to embark on large and costly experiments 
at the ratepayers' expense unless there are very good 
grounds for believing that the results will be com- 
mensurate. 

It cannot be said that there are such grounds in 
the present case. The experience of other countries, 
which is often cited, is of very little value. In the 
first place they are other countries, and in the second 



HABITUAL INEBRIATES 275 

the results have never been critically examined. The 
official reports of institutions for the cure of anything 
are always rose-coloured, and the enormous discount 
which has to be taken off in the case of other foreign 
experiments in dealing with drink is a warning 
against too ready credence in this matter. Of more 
value to us is the experience of our voluntary 
retreats. 

The most promising fact about these establish- 
ments — familiarly known to the initiated as ' dip- 
shops/ from the word dipsomania — is the gradual 
increase in the number of patients making use of 
them. It indicates an increasing number of persons 
willing to submit to restraint for their own good. In 
twenty years they have risen from 31 to 422 or 
more per annum. But even the higher figure is 
very small. It represents the total number 
received during the year, not the number under 
treatment at once. That is very much less — but 
little more than half, so far as can be estimated from 
the returns. The total accommodation provided in 
1900 for males and females under the Act and other- 
wise was 476; but several of the homes are never, 
and others are rarely, full, so that the existing provi- 
sion is not fully utilised. The number under treat- 
ment at the end of the year was only 237. As this 
cannot, on the most optimistic estimate, represent 
more than a fraction of the persons needing treatment 
and able to pay for it, the inference may be fairly 
drawn that the majority of inebriates are not as yet 
anxious to avail themselves of the advantages of 



276 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

retreat. 1 That may be and is used as an argument 
for their compulsory committal, but it is a somewhat 
dangerous one to use, for it goes to show that they 
will resist compulsion if possible, and being commit- 
ted against their own wish will not be in a favourable 
condition to profit by the discipline. This is a very 
important consideration, to which I shall return 
presently. It is strengthened by the fact that, small 
as is the number of persons now applying for treat- 
ment, the majority even of these willing patients pre- 
fer to enter for very short — and quite useless — terms, 
and that upon a private footing which gives their 
keeper no legal hold over them. 

Perhaps I ought to explain that patients may 
enter a home either on a private footing or on a 
legal one — ' under the Acts/ as the phrase usually 
runs. In the former case no formalities are required 
and inmates are still their own masters. In the 
latter, certain documents must be signed. The 
applicant must sign a request for admission, for a 
stated period, before two justices of the peace or a 
stipendiary magistrate; and two other persons — 
friends or relatives — must sign a statutory declara- 
tion that the applicant is an habitual drunkard within 
the meaning of the Act. A patient so entered is 
liable to prosecution and penalties for breaking 
bounds, obtaining liquor, or otherwise violating the 
rules of the establishment. These formalities, 
which are mainly intended to safeguard the liberty 

1 The annual report of one home states that ' in nine cases 
out of ten the friends are unable to persuade the inebriate/ 



HABITUAL INEBRIATES 277 

of patients, are said to act as a deterrent on account 
of the publicity involved, about which inebriates are 
often very sensitive; but it may be doubted if the 
real motive for avoiding them is not rather the dis- 
like of submitting to legal restraint. At any rate, 
about half do not submit themselves to it, and of 
those who do a large proportion consent only to short 
terms. Out of the whole number admitted in 1900 
only 131 entered for twelve months and upwards 
under the Acts, against 203 who entered as private 
patients for an average period of eighteen weeks, 
which is a mere make-believe. At the Rickmans- 
worth home, out of 606 patients discharged since it 
was opened 282 entered under the Acts, and 324 as 
private patients; the average period of detention 
was six and a half months; 119 entered for twelve 
months or more, and 253 for three months or less. 

From these facts I draw the conclusion that out 
of the comparatively small number of inebriates who 
are sufficiently desirous of reform to undergo the 
discipline of a retreat, only a much smaller number 
enter upon the experiment with a sincere determina- 
tion to do their best. In point of fact, a good many 
are there mainly because their relations, on whom 
they are dependent, cannot put up with them any 
longer, and insist upon their trying the experiment. 
They have a sort of feeble wish to rehabilitate them- 
selves, but it is as nothing against the habit of 
gratifying the desire of the moment, fixed by a life- 
time of steady self-indulgence. What do they do? 
In the first place, they regard their period of enforced 



278 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

abstinence with intense loathing, as a martyrdom. 
That is their standing frame of mind. Then they 
not infrequently kick over the traces. I do not wish 
to suggest any charge against the management of 
existing ' dip-shops.' Some are better and some are 
worse conducted, but they are either commercial 
speculations or more or less struggling charities, 
and adequate surveillance is very expensive. Besides, 
servants can be bribed. Drunkards are very cun- 
ning, and superintendents cannot know all tliat goes 
on. It may be more difficult to obtain liquor in one 
place than another, but it is possible in all, at any 
rate in the male homes. In one which enjoys, and 
I believe deservedly, a very high reputation, and is 
always recommended by the most eminent specialists 
in alcoholism, I know that liquor has been systemat- 
ically obtained by a confederate outside slinging a 
bottle over the wall in a basket ; and I myself possess 
a bottle of whisky which was procured and presented 
to me in another home by a patient. It stands in 
my cupboard alongside a companion curiosity in the 
shape of a bottle of potheen presented to me by an 
Irish priest in the far west of Ireland. I can see 
him now — the best fellow in the world — running 
down the steps of his house, his coat-tails flying, and 
the bottle in his hand as a parting gift. It would 
be difficult to say which trophy contains the more 
nauseous liquid ; but while the clerical one stands for 
pure hospitality and patriotic pride, my friend in the 
dip-shop produced his in order to prove how easily 
he could obtain the forbidden fruit and how cour- 



HABITUAL INEBRIATES 279 

ageously he abstained from it himself — which I am 
afraid he did not. No such proof was needed. If 
a man makes up his mind to get liquor, and can 
command either money or credit, there is no place 
outside a gaol or an asylum in which he cannot gratify 
his desire. I do not say that this is done in all homes, 
or done regularly in any, but it is done, and some- 
times a regular outbreak of drunkenness results. 

My belief is that it would occur oftener if more 
patients were committed for a long period. They 
can get through a short spell fairly well by thinking 
over past delights, and promising themselves a 
delicious recompense — just one — for their present 
pangs when the sentence is up. If they had a 
longer time to serve, more would break out. The 
tone and atmosphere of the place are dead against 
good resolves. It is nobody's fault, but an inherent 
defect in the system, and an extremely serious one. 
Here are a lot of persons addicted to a particular 
vice — sometimes with concomitant vices — and they 
are all herded together, cut off from the rest of 
mankind, solely on account of that vice. What 
is their conversation about? Well, what is the 
conversation of criminals about in a similar situa- 
tion? Invariably about crime — the crimes they 
have committed and the crimes they are going to 
commit. So the conversation in a dip-shop is all 
about drink, the drinks of the past and the drinks 
of the future. That is to say, in the male homes; 
of the female ones I have no personal knowledge 
though from what I know of women generally, and 



280 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

inebriates in particular, I should expect it to be still 
more true of them, as they are much more loquacious 
and confidential. But of the male homes I can 
speak, having known several patients who have been 
in several homes, and having mixed in their society 
in one. The conversation is of drink and women 
and other dip-shops, and it is not edifying. What 
else can be expected? Some at least, and generally 
the majority, are youngish men who have led idle, 
self-indulgent lives, devoted to amusement. They 
are cut off from their usual occupations and have 
no other interests to fall back upon. They lead a 
pathetically joyless existence, intensified by the 
consciousness that the world regards them as a 
species of social outcast, and they inevitably seek 
consolation in the demoralising contemplation of 
those who are worse than themselves. The sense 
of degradation is made supportable by the spectacle 
of an equal or a lower degradation, which tends 
insensibly downwards. A few days spent in this 
atmosphere seem like a nightmare: months of it 
must reduce to despair. The moral influence is 
exactly the opposite to that which inebriates require. 
The thing they need is the gradual restoration of 
their self-respect by the companionship of people 
who are not inebriates and whose example stimulates 
upwards. This is the fundamental dilemma of the 
problem, which has been entirely overlooked. The 
physical benefit of restraint in a home is neutralised 
by the moral evil of its associations. The more 
reckless and degraded spirits set the tone, which 



HABITUAL INEBRIATES 281 

tends to weaken the best resolutions. To use the 
words of a patient, ' You go in more or less of a 
gentleman and you come out a roaring, seething 
cad.' A man may be ashamed of himself when he 
enters, but his companions soon reassure him. There 
will be some one to keep him in countenance in his 
worst moments. He finds himself the member of 
a sort of fraternity — the noble Order of Dips. Its 
lodges are the various dip-shops, which are freely 
discussed by the brethren, just as doss-houses and 
other haunts are discussed by tramps. Some inmates 
spend their time going in and out from one home 
to another, and the recruit soon learns all about 
them, the strictness of the management, the comfort, 
the food supplied, the character of the l doctor/ and 
so forth. At the same time he hears of notable dips 
and their exploits in the way of drinking. In short, 
he gets to know the ropes and lives in an atmosphere 
of dipsomania. 

What is the result? Let me again quote the 
words of a patient : ' If he be weak, then any resolu- 
tion he may have formed as to turning himself out a 
permanent cure is cast to the four winds.' And 
most inebriates are weak, or they would not be 
inebriates. The upshot is that, whatever their original 
intentions may have been, the majority become 
callous to their condition, and only look forward to 
the hour of release. As the same authority puts it, 
1 Their enforced abstinence from stimulants only 
whets their appetite, and when they have finished 
the period for which they entered they embark 



282 DKINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

on a terrific burst, which ends in their condition 
being worse than when they entered the home.' I 
am afraid there is only too much truth in this 
account, which further depicts the proceedings of 
the average patient on leaving at the completion 
of his term: ' It is more than probable that he 
stops on his way home at the nearest pub to drink 
success to himself and perdition to all retreats and 
those connected with them.' They do not all cherish 
this idiotic frame of mind, or indulge in these idiotic 
proceedings. A considerable number derive tem- 
porary benefit at any rate, and some, it is hoped, 
are permanently cured, but, of course, no one can 
say with any certainty, because relapses may occur 
at any time. The record of the Dalrymple Home, 
Eickmansworth, is 247 patients either * doing well ' 
or f improved ' out of 606. The terms are vague, 
and no information is given with regard to the time 
elapsed since discharge. How many have remained 
sober five years after treatment? Are there 5 per 
cent. ? If, however, even a small percentage of cases 
derive substantial benefit, that is no doubt a sufficient 
justification for the existence and encouragement 
of retreats which are self-supporting or maintained 
by private charity. But, as I have said, public in- 
stitutions at the public cost stand on a different foot- 
ing. The question is not whether a few chosen brands 
can be plucked from the burning, but whether the 
aggregate benefit to the community is likely to justify 
the outlay. 

Now if the results of restraint are such as I have 



HABITUAL INEBRIATES 281 

described in the majority or even a minority of 
patients belonging to class (1), who are so far 
desirous of reformation as at least to submit them- 
selves voluntarily to the discipline, what can be 
expected of class (2), who only submit under com- 
pulsion? It is trur out of the way 
for a time, to the great relief of their friends; but 
the establishment of Bl formatories on a large 
juld hardly be justified on those grounds. 
I take it that reclamation is the object in view, and 
I as£ What chan:- of any commensurate 

ill It will be argued that the disappointing 
results in voluntary horn- due to the 

short terms of detention, and that if the minimum 
period woe twelve months there would be more 

esses. There might be. but there would also be 
another result — namely, fewer patients. I entirely 
agree that the longer the period of enforced absti- 
nence the more eongdefa Hie phya iad :e reiteration. 
That is a conclusion, based upon experience, in which 
I be_ very one agrees. Patients who enter for 

twelve months turn out far better than those who 
enter for only three or six ; but to argue that compul- 
sory restrairit for twelve months would necessarily 
bring the three and six months ' cases up to the same 
standard of success is to ignore one half of the whole 

rion. Twelve months' cases do better, not 
merely because they are under restraint for twelve 
months, but also because they are better disposed to 
profit by it. The fact that they have voluntarily 
submitted to the longer period proves that they are 



284 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

more truly alrfe to their condition and more firmly 
resolved to make a serious effort. The compulsory 
twelve-monthers would be in no such frame of mind. 
On the contrary, they would be more exasperated and 
more refractory than if their sentence were shorter. 

This point brings me to an important misconcep- 
tion which tends to obscure the whole question at 
present. We have so developed the physical side of 
the problem that we are apt to forget the moral one, 
and even that there is a moral one. I quite agree 
that inebriety or dipsomania is a disease with a 
certain physical basis, though what that is nobody 
knows. We only know by experience that whatever 
may be the nature of the disease it must be treated 
by total abstinence. Otherwise there can be no cure. 
In establishing that principle medical science has 
done great service. But to lose sight of the other 
side, to regard inebriety as merely a physical disease 
and to suppose that physical treatment alone will do 
lasting good, is to make a great mistake, and a very 
common one. Perhaps nobody would admit taking 
that view in so many words, but it underlies the 
reasoning of those who expect much from compul- 
sory abstinence. The theory is that inebriates are 
the victims of a physical malady which takes the 
form of an ' irresistible craving/ and renders them 
powerless to withstand temptation; and that when 
the poison is eliminated the craving will be gone 
with it. • There is some truth in it, but only half the 
truth. The primary malady is not physical but 
moral, if we admit a moral element at all, and it 



HABITUAL INEBRIATES 285 

remains after the other has been removed. It is 
aggravated by the physical condition and lessened by 
the latter 's improvement, I allow, but as it existed 
before, so it continues after. This is what is so 
often overlooked. ' Irresistible craving ' is one of 
those phrases with which people intoxicate them- 
selves. It covers a multitude of fallacies, for those 
who use it do not see that either there is no such 
thing or else it involves the denial of all moral 
responsibility. Every desire which any individual 
fails to resist is to that individual an irresistible 
craving, and in no other sense is the drunkard's 
craving irresistible. He does not resist it because 
he does not want to with sufficient energy. He 
would like to be free from the disadvantages of 
being a drunkard, but he does not want to stop 
drinking. If he did he would stop. When he has 
a sufficiently strong motive he does stop. Let me 
give you two or three examples, some of them 
classical ones. Dr. Johnson found at one time in 
his life that if he began to drink he invariably went 
on until he got drunk, and being a man of great 
self-respect he promptly ceased drinking at all. He 
had the ' irresistible craving ' of the physical 
malady; only he resisted it because he possessed the 
moral strength to do so. De Quincey emancipated 
himself from the opium inebriety, which is far more 
difficult to cure than the alcoholic, not by his moral 
strength, but simply and solely because the results 
of taking opium became more painful than absten- 
tion, painful as that was. His case is an admirable 



286 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

lesson in the real principles involved. The ' irresist- 
ible craving ' became resistible in the presence of a 
stronger motive. I can parallel these classical 
examples from my own knowledge. A confirmed 
dipsomaniac who had tried pretty nearly everything 
was at last given up by all his friends and relations ; 
when lo! his pride came to his assistance. He said 
to himself, * Everybody has given me up. Well, 
hang it! I won't give myself up.' And without 
any further assistance he turned over a new leaf and 
abstained for a long time. In the second case, an 
Irish priest in the first stage of delirium tremens, 
and absolutely mad for drink, became quite manage- 
able on learning that the bishop had been sent for. 
His ' irresistible craving ' — and it was the extremest 
form — was resisted at once with the assistance of fear. 
I could give more examples from an intimate experi- 
ence of inebriates, but perhaps these will suffice to 
illustrate the point. 

I maintain, therefore, that a physical craving 
which is absolutely irresistible does not exist. 
Irresistibility has always a moral element, and any 
theory which does not take that into account only 
leads to error. This seems to me to be the case with 
the reformatory theory, as ordinarily held. I agree 
with it so far as this — that the inebriate's power of 
self-control is impaired and can only be restored by 
abstinence; but the theory goes further and assumes 
that abstinence also gives the desire to use the 
repaired self-control. That is the mistake. Self- 
control and desire to reform are different things. 



HABITUAL INEBRIATES 287 

Abstinence helps the one, but not the other. The 
utmost that treatment in a home can do — and I am 
sure every doctor who has conducted one will agree 
here — is to give a patient a fresh start, and, if any 
lasting benefit is to result, the treatment must be 
preceded and accompanied by a strong and earnest 
desire to amend. Otherwise the patient merely be- 
gins again with the same moral defect that originally 
led to the downfall, intensified, it may be, by 
demoralising companionship. In that case the issue 
is a foregone conclusion. Physical treatment does 
not mean a moral cure, and in every case the disease 
is primarily moral. Drunkards make all sorts of 
excuses, which impose upon soft-hearted people and 
theorists, but no one becomes a helpless inebriate 
without a prolonged course of conscious self-indul- 
gence. The habit may be broken off, but if the self- 
indulgence which led to it remains, then the same 
thing infallibly happens again. The craving still 
remains irresistible. In truth, it is fallacious to 
speak of * curing ' inebriety. The inebriate must 
cure himself, and all that can be done for him is to 
assist his endeavour by placing self-indulgence 
out of his reach. 

What chance, then, is there of curing those who 
are so little anxious to reform that they will not 
voluntarily submit to restraint? And what differ- 
ence will it make whether they are incarcerated for 
six months or six years? Just about the same 
difference that it makes to other hardened offenders. 
The fear of getting into trouble again may make 



288 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

them somewhat more wary, but they set about 
gratifying their instincts from the first moment of 
release. We must expect drunkards to do the 
same. 

My object in saying so much is not to depre- 
cate effort in this direction, but to prevent illusion 
and the discouragement and reaction which come 
from disappointed hopes. We have got to do the 
best we can for these specimens of the unfit, and the 
less self-deception we indulge in the more likely we 
are to succeed. We must be content with small 
results and not fall into the mistake of supposing 
that large and imposing operations will succeed in a 
matter of this kind when lesser ones fail. There is 
a general tendency to think so at the present time. 
It is seen that the retreats and reformatories 
established for my two first classes of drunkards 
make, and are likely to make, little or no perceptible 
difference in the mass of drunkenness, and a cry 
rs for means to deal with the third class, which 
neither submits to voluntary imprisonment nor 
comes within reach of the law by the commission of 
drunken crime or by repeated convictions for drunk- 
enness in the police-court. This is a far more 
difficult step and one promising even less results than 
the existing systems which have proved so disap- 
pointing. To frame an Act of Parliament dealing 
with the class to some extent is not beyond the wit 
of man, but to make it work effectively is another 
matter. 

It may be taken as certain that public opinion 



HABITUAL INEBRIATES 289 

will not tolerate any procedure with regard to alleged 
inebriates which, safeguards their liberty less carefully 
than that of lunatics. No other attitude is ad- 
missible, for, however obnoxious inebriates may 
be, they are less dangerous to themselves and other 
people than lunatics, and therefore society has a 
less incontestable right to place them under summary 
constraint. Now, it is not always easy to bring 
a lunatic under the law, as may be seen from the 
constant occurrence of tragedies committed by 
maniacs at large, and from the conduct of those 
ladies who haunt the Law Courts to the terror of 
His Majesty's judges. Certificates have to be signed 
by several independent persons stating specific proofs 
of insanity within the personal knowledge of each 
witness. These are sometimes very hard to obtain, 
but it would obviously be extremely difficult, and 
often quite impossible, to obtain such independent 
evidence proving inebriety. It is notoriously difficult 
to prove a single act of simple drunkenness. In 
the ordinary five-shilling police-court case there is 
often a conflict of evidence, and in more serious ones, 
even when public misconduct affords solid ground 
for the charge, it is successfully resisted. Illness, 
fits, sunstroke, what not, are pleaded, and expert 
witnesses brought to support the plea. How incom- 
parably more difficult to prove inebriety! You can- 
not call in an independent medical man to certify 
inebriety on a single occasion as you can with lunacy. 
Long acquaintance with the patient's habits would 
be necessaiy, such as only the friends and relatives 



290 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

possess; and their testimony, which is not allowed 
to suffice for lunacy, could not be allowed to suffice 
in the other case. Then the inebriate must have 
the right of appeal to a jury no less than the lunatic, 
and the only result would be that every one would 
shrink from certifying inebriety. Remember that 
when a drunkard is sober he can answer for himself 
as well as any one else in court, and that, coupled 
with the medical difficulty of proving drunkenness, 
would make the conviction of such a client, well 
defended, almost impossible. If a jury could pro- 
nounce Mrs. sane, then there is hardly an 

inebriate in existence whom they would convict. 
In short, the condition of inebriety is far too ill 
defined, too hazy, and too little susceptible of 
demonstration to stand the searching test of a court 
of law. And if it is objected that such tests are 
quite unnecessary, I would reply that, in view of 
the abuses to which laxity would open the door, 
it is more necessary to protect an alleged inebriate 
with all possible care than an alleged lunatic, for 
this reason: a lunatic's sentence (if I may use the 
term) is indefinite. A certificate only runs for a fort- 
night, and at any time subsequently he may — and 
does — regain his freedom on regaining his senses, 
which is a matter of observation and susceptible 
of proof. But the inebriate is to be sentenced to 
a fixed term, which all experts are agreed should 
not be less than one or two years, or even more, 
if it is to do any real good. The prisoner has to 
serve his time out. He cannot prove that he has 



HABITUAL INEBRIATES 291 

recovered, because lie is sane and sober from the 
outset. And it would surely be a dangerous thing 
if the law were so framed as to permit the incar- 
ceration of anybody, even for six months, without 
due care. A few drugs adroitly administered, and 
an obnoxious person goes to the ' reformatory ' for 
a lengthy period without the chance of release. He 
or she is an ' inebriate,' and cannot prove the con- 
trary as a pretended lunatic can. The doctor, in 
perfect good faith, smiles at the denial, for all 
inebriates firmly believe themselves cured in every 
interval of sobriety. In short, proof of inebriety 
cannot be lightly accepted by the law because 
subsequent disproof is quite impossible. "We should 
have all the old lunacy scandals over again. 

In practice the difficulty might be found less 
formidable than I have represented, but it is 
sufficiently serious to show that effective legislation 
is not the simple matter it appears to the ardent 
reformer. "What would probably happen is that 
the law would get hold of those advanced inebriates 
who are incapable of managing their affairs and 
whose condition can be easily proved — persons, that 
is to say, who are the least hopeful subjects for 
treatment. It would hardly be possible to get hold 
of the beginners, of whom some good might be 
hoped just because they are beginners. But what 
I want more particularly to point out is that no 
such legislation — nor any reformatory scheme — will 
touch the male drunkards who cause the great mass 
of misery and suffering in this country. The 



292 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

contrary hope is based on a prevalent error suggested 
by the term ' habitual drunkard/ which confuses 
the inebriate, or diseased and more or less insane 
drunkard, with the man who gets habitually drunk. 
It is the latter whom you expect and want to get 
hold of, and in the upper classes, with which medical 
specialists in inebriety are chiefly conversant, he 
is identical with the inebriate, because no one else 
gets habitually drunk. In the lower classes it is 
not so. The English working man — I do not speak 
of social wrecks — who gets drunk every Saturday, 
who squanders the bulk of his wages in the public- 
house, neglects and ill-uses his wife and children or 
drives them to the workhouse, is very rarely an 
inebriate in the medical sense — not once in a hundred 
cases. He exhibits neither the physical degeneration 
nor the enfeebled will of the inebriate. He acts 
deliberately and has no lack of self-control. He is 
not a fit subject for the reformatory even if it were 
possible to get him there. He does not come within 
the definition of c inebriate ' in the Act of Parliament, 
because he is quite capable of managing his own 
affairs and is very often an exceptionally skilful 
workman; nor is he caught by the provision re- 
specting repeated convictions, because he generally 
takes care to stop short of incapacity to get home. 
The town clerk of Bristol, in giving evidence before 
the Peel Commission, made a statement which 
excited some surprise and incredulity. He said they 
had only six or seven men in Bristol who were 
habitual drunkards. He was quite right in the 






HABITUAL INEBRIATES 293 

sense indicated, but they have scores who habitually 
get drunk. 

This does not apply to women of the same class 
for reasons which I have mentioned more than once. 
In 1900 the number of cases committed to reforma- 
tories under the Act of 1898 was 16 males to 
128 females. As more use is made of the Act I should 
expect this disparity to be more strongly marked, 
and I have no doubt that it will eventually make 
a considerable impression on the mass of female 
drunkenness. An extension of the law to class (3) 
would also be more likely to take effect among women 
than among men. Unfortunately a large proportion 
of female inebriates are the least hopeful subjects of 
reformatory treatment, and that fact must be faced. 
It has already caused some discouragement. The 
Government inspector attributes it to the picking 
out at first of the worst cases by magistrates for 
experimental treatment. ' There is evidence,' he 
says, ' of discouragement on the part of managers 
of reformatories who are called upon, in the early 
stages of their work, to deal with a worse class than 
they anticipated, and are proportionately disap- 
pointed in not obtaining evidence of the large per- 
centage of good results they might under other 
circumstances have reasonably hoped for.' And he 
suggests that later on a more promising class will come 
into their hands. I hope that will be the case. There 
is a promising class of women. Indeed, women who 
are reformable at all are much more easily reformed 
than men. Their condition is more often due to some 



294 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

quite temporary trouble, physical or mental, and 
they can more readily displace the alcoholic excite- 
ment by some emotional influence. But I am afraid 
that these will always form a minority. 

The conclusion I draw is that the reformatory 
system will fail to touch the bulk of the male drunk- 
ards and will not reform the bulk of the female. This 
will seem very pessimistic to some, but it is not. It 
only means that this agent is limited in its action 
like the rest. But it is none the less worth using, 
like the rest; and the more clearly its limitations 
are realised the more purposeful will its application 
be, and the less subject to disturbance by that dis- 
couragement of which the inspector has so soon 
found evidence. 

Perhaps I ought to say something about drugs. 
They have a proper use in the treatment of inebriates, 
as of any other patients, but on general lines. As 
for specific * cures, ' I am open to conviction, but want 
good evidence. All that I have seen is quite worth- 
less, and bears the stamp of quackery on its face. 
It could only impose on the ignorant. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The literature of drink and temperance is very voluminous, 
but most of it is vehemently controversial, one-sided, and 
uninforming. The following is a list of publications selected 
because they either contain solid information or possess 
some other interest. 

Historical 

Nineteen Centuries of Drink in England. R. V. French. 
History of Drink. J. Samtjelson. 
History and Science of Drunkenness. W. Ackrotd. 
Temperance History. Dawson Burns. 

Legal 

Intoxicating Liquor Licensing Laws. J. Paterson. 

The Licensing Laws. G. C. Whiteley. 

The Licensing Laws, so far as they relate to the Sale of 

Intoxicating Liquor. It. M. Montgomery. 
The Need and Practicability of Licensing Reform. F. E. Slee. 

(A critical examination of the recommendations of the Peel Commis- 
sion. Also contains a summary of the existing law, very conven- 
iently arranged.) 

Scientific 

Alcoholism: A Study in Heredity. G. Archdall Keid, M.B. 

(An application of the Darwinian theory to alcoholism. Dr. Keid 
argues with much force that alcoholism tends to die out in a race 
through the elimination of the more alcoholic; but he pushes the 
theory too far and ignores other factors.) 

VAlcool et VAlcoolisme. H. Triboulet et F. Mathieu. 

Drunkenness. G. R. Wilson, M.D. 

General 

The Liquor Problem in its Legislative Aspects. Committee of 
New York. 

(A critical and dispassionate study of the most important legislative 
experiments in the.United States.) 



296 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 

The Temperance Problem and Social Reform. J. Rowntree 
and A. Sherwell. 

(A detailed examination of the American and Scandinavian experi- 
ments. Is a strong plea for the Norwegian method of disinterested 
management, and should be read in conjunction with Mr. T. P. 
Whittaker's Memorandum (see below) on the opposite side. The 
authors fall into all the fallacies with regard to consumption pointed 
out above (pp. 70, 117), and base their argument on the mistaken 
belief that Norway is the most sober country in Europe.) 

Liquor Legislation in the United States and Canada. E. L. 
Fanshawe. 

(An examination of these experiments by an English barrister.) 
The Gothenburg System of Liquor Traffic. E. R. L. Gould. 

(Prepared for the United States Commissioner of Labour. Is a full 
and accurate statement of facts in regard to the legislation of Nor- 
way and Sweden.) 

Official 

Special Reports: 

Select Committee (House of Commons) on Intoxica- 
tion, 1834. 

Select Committee (House of Commons) on Public- 
houses, 1854. 

Select Committee (House of Commons) on Habitual 
Drunkards, 1872. 

Select Committee (House of Lords) on Intemperance, 
1876. 

Select Committee (House of Commons) on British and 
Foreign Spirits, 1890. 

Royal Commission on Sunday Closing, 1890. 

Royal Commission on Liquor Licensing Laws, 1896. 

(Mr. T. P. Whittaker's Memorandum, attached to the Final Report, 
states the case for Local Veto against the Scandinavian system ; 
should be read with Messrs. Rowntree and Sherwell's book. They 
answer each other.) 

Return of~ Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages, &c, in 
the United Kingdom 1861-1893, 1894. 

Annual Returns: 

Judicial Statistics. 

Statistical Tables (consumption). 

Registrar-General's Report. 

Alcoholic Beverages in Europe and U.S.A. 

Report of Commissioner of Metropolitan Police. 

Report of Inspector of Reformatories. 



INDEX 



Aberdeen, 54 

Abstainers, number of, 92, 99 

Abstinence, total, 12, 34, 93, 

101, 113 
Acts of Parliament, list of, 

103-109 
Adulteration, 23, 33, 46, 207, 

234 
Alcohol, use of, 13, 137; 

action of, 115, 116 
Alcoholism, death-rates from, 

78, 131 
America, 91, 95, 172 
Ancient Britons, 15 
Ancient Romans, 15, 127 
Anselm, 17 

Arsenical poisoning, 82 
Australia, 124 
Austria, 123 

Bacon on drunkenness, 20 

Bands of Hope, 99 

Beer, in 1130, 18; effects of, 
31, 213; consumption of, 
24, 29, 71; definition of, 
109; adulteration of, 46, 
207, 234; change in qual- 
ity, 74, 210; kinds of, 206 

Beer-house Act of 1830, 34, 
103, 139, 
168 
of 1869,106 

Beer-houses, reduction of, 48, 
68, 108; increase of, 61, 68 

Belfast, 34, 56, 91, 192 

Bergen, 270 

Berwickshire, 54 

Betting, 10, 11; in public- 
houses, 104, 107, 222 



Birmingham, 48, 50 
Bishop Blomfield, 92, 95 
Bishop of Rochester, 111 
Bona-fide traveller, 147, 148 
Bradford, 34, 51, 92 
Branvin, 139, 247 
Brewers, ?~ , 131, 201, 227, 

235 
Bridge, Sir John, 49, 77, 86 
Bristol, 48, 51, 94, 166, 292 
British and Foreign Temper- 
ance Society, 43 
Burns, Dr. Dawson, 91, 96, 

111, 113 
Burton on drinking in 1621, 

21 
Bus-drivers, 132 
Butchers, 131, 132 

Cabmen, 131 

Camden on drunkenness, 19 

Cardiff, 48, 108, 198, 241, 261 

Celts, 125, 198 

Charles I., 21 

Chester, 51, 120 

Chief Constables, 145, 186 

Child-messengers, 109, 152 

Chinese, 125 

Church of England Temper- 
ance Society, 96, 98, 101 

Clergy, in sixth century, 16; 
in seventeenth century, 22; 
sobriety of, 133 

Climate, influence of, 69, 117 

Clouston, Dr., on drunkards, 
157 

Clubs, 143, 180 

Clydebank, 55 

Coal-heavers, 131 



298 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



Commission, Royal ( Peel ) , 

1896-99, 3, 7, 49, 61, 77, 

89, 141, 146, 161, 186, 192, 

292 

Committee, Select, of 1834, 

35-41 

of 1850, 207 

of 1854, 45, 

89, 207 
of 1876, 47, 
89, 107 
Committee of New York, 172 
Consumption, statistics of, in 
seventeenth century, 24; in 
eighteenth century, 29 ; 
from 1867 to 1875, 47, 
150; from 1831 to 1890, 
71; from 1891 to 1899, 73; 
fallacies of, 70, 117; in 
Gothenburg, 253; of beer 
in Sweden, 257 
Conviviality, 136 
Cooks, intemperance of, 132 
Cork, 56, 94 
Costermongers, 131 
Crime and drink, 10 

Daly, Mb., 195 

Danes, 17 

1 Danesbury House/ 97 

Darwinian theorv and drink. 

126, 296 
Defoe on the working man, 

24 
Delirium tremens, 80 
De Quincey, 285 
Dipsomania, 31, 86, 213, 284 
Doctors, 132 
Doctor Johnson, 285 
Drink, evils of, 9, 41; and 

crime, 10; and povertv, 

134, 212 
Drinking healths, 15, 136 
Drinking to pegs, 17 
Drunkards classified, 213; 

treatment of, 154, 156, 178, 

214 



Drunkenness of ancient Brit- 
ons, 15; Saxons, 16; Danes 
and Normans, 17; in six- 
teenth century, 19; in 
seventeenth century, 21-24; 
in eighteenth century, 24- 
33; in 1824, 33; in 1834, 
35-41; decline of, 44; 
among upper classes, 32, 
112, 213; among women, 
see Female drunkenness; 
among children, see Ju- 
venile drunkenness; statis- 
tics of, 57; in London, 49, 
60; in Liverpoool, 50, 62, 
188; in Glasgow. 63, 256; 
in England and Wales, 49, 
64, 119; in Ireland, 55, 65, 
125, 256; in Scotland, 53, 
119, 125, 256; in France, 
118; in English counties, 
120; in Wales, 125; in 
Newcastle. 256; in Gothen- 
burg, 255, 261; in Hun- 
gary, 123; in wine-grow- 
ing countries, 117; in 
Portugal, 118; in Stock- 
holm, Christiania, and Ber- 
gen, 270; geographical dis- 
tribution of, 119; influence 
of climate on, 121; of race, 
123; of heredity, 42. 126; 
of occupation, 129; of 
home conditions, 134; of 
festivals, 15, 136; of num- 
ber of public-houses, 66, 
138, 141; of wages. 149; of 
publicans, 216, 231, 268; 
of police supervision, 186; 
at railway bars, 189; de- 
liberate "among working 
men, 24, 214 

Dublin, 56, 192 

Dumbarton, 55 

Dundee. 54. S 7 

Dunstan, 17 



INDEX 



299 



Early closing, in 1285, 18; 
effect of, 145; recommend- 
ed, 196; under Gothen- 
burg system, 268 

Edgar, Rev. Dr., 91 

Edinburgh, 54 

Edward VI., 18 

Engine-drivers, 133 

Facilities, excessive, 138; 
deficient, 143; not propor- 
tionate to drunkenness, 141 

Farre, Dr., 40 

Father Mathew, 61, 93 

Female drunkenness in seven- 
teenth century, 23 ; in eight- 
eenth, 25; in nineteenth, 
35, 38, 89; alleged increase, 
53, 75: in upper classes, 
75; in lower, 77; statistics 
of, 83; causes of, 76, 86, 
132, 220; treatment of, 
293; in other countries, 
220, 258 

Fielding, 30 

Finis ter re, 142 

France, 118, 129, 142 

French, Dr. Valpy, 15, 19, 22, 
25 

Gentleman's Magazine, 30, 
33 

Gin, 20, 29, 31 

Gin Act, 26, 167 

Glamorgan, 120, 126, 141 

Glasgow, 34, 54, 63, 256 

Gloucestershire, 52 

Good Templars, 69 

Gothenburg, 139; town de- 
scribed, 240; liquor traffic 
in, 242; the Bolag, 244, 
251; consumption of bran- 
vin, 253; drunkenness in, 
254, 259; compared with 
Cardiff, 261; the police. 262 

Gothenburg system, 147, 171, 
183, 224, 238; described, 



243; its effects, 252; on 
consumption, 253; on 
drunkenness, 255; on wel- 
fare of the people, 258; 
application to England, 
265; cardinal point of, 267; 
its most effective action, 
268 

Greece, 126 

Greenock, 34, 54 

Grocers' licenses, 77, 105, 168, 
180 

Habitual inebriates, 12, 86, 
156, 179, 213; duty of the 
State, 271, 274, 282; Acts 
of Parliament, 272, 276; re- 
treats and reformatories, 
272; classification of cases, 
275; their state of mind, 
276; inherent defect of re- 
treats, 280; effects of re- 
straint, 282; moral side of 
inebriety, 284; difficulty of 
dealing compulsorily with 
non-criminal cases, 288 ; 
working-men drunkards, 
292; women, 293 

Hairdressers, 131 

Heredity, 42, 126 

Hindoos, 128 

Hogarth, 25 

Holland, 19, 20, 220 

Horsley, Rev. J. W., on bet- 
ting, 11 

Hours of closing, 38, 61, 103, 
107, 145, 165, 197 

Hull, 51 

Hungary, 123, 136 

Iago, 20 

Idleness and drink, 133 

Illicit trade, 26, 72, 108, 143, 

165, 173 
Inebriety, 75; see Habitual 

inebriates 



300 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



Inn-keepers and inn-servants, 
131 

Innocent II., 18 

Intemperance, see Drunken- 
ness 

Ireland, 55, 65, 68, 91, 125, 
192, 256 

Italy, 117, 126 

James L, 20 

Japanese, 125 

Jews, 128 

Juvenile drunkenness, 38, 55, 
152, 221; tinder Gothen- 
burg system, 258 

Kerr, Dr. Norman, 53, 78, 85 
Kethe, Rev. William (1570), 

20 
Kilkenny, 56 
King Edgar, 17 
Knight, Charles, 33 

Lancashire, 38, 52, 142 

Lecky, Mr., 15, 24, 31 

Leeds, 34, 50 

Licenses introduced, 18; sug- 
gested classification, 196 

Licensing Act, of 1828, 34; of 
1872 and 1874, 65, 106, 163 

Licensing Bench, 190 

Limerick, 94 

Lincoln, 52 

Lisbon, 118 

Liverpoool, 48, 50, 62, 78, 87, 
139, 166 

Local option, 170, 174, 181 

London in the thirteenth cen- 
tury, 18; in the seventeenth 
century, 23; in the eight- 
eenth century, 25, 28, 32; 
in 1824, 33; in 1834, 35; 
in 1896, 49; statistics of 
drunkenness, 59, 120, 130; 
public-houses in East-end, 
202 

Londonderry, 56, 192 



Magistrates, 185, 189 
Mahommedans, 128 
Maine liquor law, 95 
Maitland, William, History of 

London, 27 
Manchester, 38, 48, 50, 89 
Manning, Cardinal, 97 
Massachusetts, 95 
Metropolitan Police Act 

(1839), 61, 103, 164 
Middlesex magistrates, 25, 26, 

34 
Miners, 129 
Model public-houses, 223, 224, 

238, 268 

Mordaunt, Rev. Osbert, 225 
Musicians, 131 

Netherlands, see Holland 
Newcastle, 48, 51, 256 
Normans, 17 

Northumberland, 120, 141 
Norway, 26, 118, 139, 170, 

239, 270 
Nottingham, 51 

Occupation and drink, 129 

Oporto, 118 

Opportunities, see Facilities 

Peel Commission, see Com- 
mission, Royal 

Penzance, 52 

Pepys, 22 

Periin, Stephen, 19 

Permitting drunkenness, 107, 
218, 268 

Plymouth, 51 

Police, procedure, 58; power 
of entry, 104, 107; judges 
of number of licenses, 145; 
and clubs, 181; defects of, 
185; Liverpool system, 186; 
in country, 233; in Gothen- 
burg, 262 

Police statistics, their value, 
57; for London, 59; Liver- 






INDEX 



301 



pool, 62, 87, 140, 188; Glas- 
gow, 63; England and 
Wales, 64, 150; Ireland, 65; 
of female drunkenness, 83; 
by counties, 120; by char- 
acter of districts, 129; in 
Gothenburg, 255, 261; other 
Scandinavian towns, 270 

Portugal, 117, 118 

Poverty and drink, 9, 134 

Price of liquor, influence on 
consumption, 151 

Prohibition, 96, 167, 173 

Prostitutes, 38, 86 

Publicans, number in Eng- 
land and Wales, 1831-91, 
67; statutory powers and 
penalties, 107; mortality 
from alcoholism, 131; pro- 
vide what is demanded, 
148; attitude to children, 
153, 221; treatment by 
magistrates, 189; 'punish 
the wrong-doer,' 195; diffi- 
culties of, 200, 219; atti- 
tude to customers, 202; to 
drunkenness, 216; permit 
betting, 222; in the coun- 
try, 231; laxity in Sweden, 
264 

Public-houses, complaints of, 
in thirteenth, fourteenth, 
fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
turies, 18; in seventeenth 
century, 22; in eighteenth 
century, 28, 32; in 1830, 
34; number of customers in 
1834, 35; improvement of, 
45, 48, 50; numbers and re- 
duction of, 48, 67; in Scot- 
land, 68; in Ireland, 68; 
excess of, 138; number of, 
and drunkenness, 140; de- 
ficiency of, 143; disorderly 
houses, 181 ; supervision of, 
186; record should be kept, 
190; 'superfluous' houses, 



194; tied houses, 195; the 
customers to blame, 200; 
the exterior of, 203; the in- 
terior of, 204; liquor sold 
in, 206; non-intoxicants, 
218; women and children 
in, 219; betting in, 222; 
country houses, 230; model 
houses, 238 

Puritans, 22 

' Pushing the sale/ 216, 268 

Queen Victoria, 43, 114 

Race, influence of, 123, 173 

Rechabites, 96 

Recreation, 135 

Religious ceremonies and 

drinking, 15, 136 
Renfrewshire, 54 
Restoration, The, 23 
Restriction, necessity of, 18, 

138; limits of, 140 
Retreats and reformatories, 

see Habitual inebriates 
Romans, 15 
Russia, 117 

Sailors, 129 

Salisbury, Lord, 5 

Saxons, 16, 17 

Scandinavia, see Norway, 
Sweden, Gothenburg 

Scotch whisky, 77 

Scotland, 39, 53, 68, 104, 117, 
119, 121, 125, 256 

Seaports, 129 

Serving drunken persons, 218, 
230, 253, 268 

Shakespeare, 20 

Sheffield, 48 

Smith, Mr. Horace, on bet- 
ting, 11 

Somersetshire, 52 

Spain, 117 

Spirits, 20, 24, 29, 31, 87, 121, 
259; consumption of, in 



302 DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION 



United Kingdom, 71, 73; in 
Gothenburg, 253 

Staffordshire, 52 

Stubbes, Philip (1583), 20 

Sunday, in 1570, 20; in 1834, 
36; in 1854, 45 

Sunday closing, in Scotland, 
104, 105; in Ireland, 108; 
in Wales, 108; doubtful ef- 
fects of, 125, 145, 165; ap- 
plication to England, 197 

Sweden, 26, 118, 122, 136, 139, 
170, 239; consumption of 
beer, 257; see also Gothen- 
burg 

Teetotalism, 34, 93, 97, 101 
Temperance movement, 34 ; 
origin of, 91; in England, 
92; zenith of, 93; decline 
of, 95; revival of, 96; pres- 
ent position, 98; influence 
of, 100; see also Father 
Mathew 



Tied houses, 168, 195, 207, 235 
Trade, influence on intemper- 
ance, 47, 61, 73, 149 

Ulster Temperance Society, 

United Kingdom Alliance, 96 
Usquebaugh, 20 

Wales, 108, 125, 198 
Watch Committees, 186, 191 
Waterford, 56 
West Bromwich, 53 
Whyte, Mr., 53 
Wieselgren, Dr., 139, 257 
Willerding, Mr., 139, 169 
Wilson, Dr., on drunkards, 156 
Wine, consumption of, 71, 73, 
151; change from heavy to 
light, 74; how drunk in 
wine-growing countries, 117 

York, 51, 78 



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